Best of Times
by False Sky
Summary: First fic, tenth chapter! Visitor's day has come! Meet a whole new slew of characters who are here just for this special day, and wait in anticipation. for, there will be angst and there will be violence (but not too much of either). T for language and the fact that Brawl just isn't Brawl without violence, although there's not much of it -.-
1. Baseball?

**A/N: Hi guys! My username is False Sky, but you can just call me False for short. I've been lurking around this site for a few weeks now, and I decided I wanted to try my hand at writing a fanfic for Brawl, since it's so open for interpretation, and, well, is one of my favourite games. This'll be a pretty relaxed story, closer to a series of one-shots (although I'll probably stick in a couple arcs eventually). Please go easy on me, since this is my first fic. Thanks for reading, and enjoy! :)**

**Disclaimer: I don't own these guys. Bleh, wish I did.**

It was a fresh, crisp spring day at the Smash Mansion. The air outside was a little bit chilly, but the sky had been clear of clouds for a little while now, and the sun was shining warmly down on the Mansion. Most of the Smashers were still spending their time inside, but some of the younger smashers had gone outside to play about an hour ago.

Things were a little different now. Zelda looked up from the book she'd been reading as she heard a loud _thwack_ come from outside, followed shortly by a solid _thunk_. Link had left her room about ten minutes ago, after which she had opened her window to let some fresh air in. Another _thwack_ came, alongside another _thunk_, and she got up and walked to the window and stuck her head out. She watched for a little bit, and then giggled suddenly as she realized what they were doing. She closed her window firmly and went back to her chair, picking up her book again. She wasn't really reading anymore though, just listening to the now faint sounds coming from outside, and waiting.

* * *

"Darn it, that was close," said Link, shading his eyes with his hand as he looked towards the Mansion, as a ball bounced off the wall with a _thunk_ sound. "Just a little to the left…"

"I think I've got it now," said Pit from where he was crouching behind the Mirror Shield, grinning mischievously. "Let's try it again."

Link's head turned back and forth as he looked at everybody there, trying to estimate some curves. His eyes traveled from where Toon Link, scratching his ear while waiting, to Ness, already holding a baseball bat in a ready position, and Lucas behind him, smiling shyly as he held up a gloved hand, to Pit, who was crouching on the ground, wings and body folded behind a slightly tilted Mirror Shield. He then looked back to one particular window of the Mansion. "Looking good," he said. He was in the midst of turning when he suddenly remembered what was in his pocket, and he spun on his heel and ran up to Toon Link. "Here, use this," he said, pressing a white ball into his hand. He ran off a couple meters, out of their line of fire, before turning back and yelling, "Let's do it!"

The other Smashers all grinned at him, then Toon Link wound up his arm and threw the ball as hard as he could straight at Ness. Ness brought around his bat just in time, hitting the ball with a loud _thwack_, making it go even faster and aiming it perfectly at Pit. Pit peered at it from around the edge of the shield the whole time and made a slight adjustment before it hit his shield and bounced off, even faster than before. The ball flew high into the air, past the huge vegetable garden, the flower garden, the fountain, and the patio, before it curved down, perfectly, into a window.

"Yes!" Link shouted. He started pumping his fist into the air at the same time that wafts of multi-coloured smoke began to come out of the window. A _very_ loud "WHAT THE-" came from the room, followed by the sound of a slamming door as Link began to laugh out loud.

"You gave Toon Link a Smoke Bomb?" Pit yelled at Link, eyes half-filled with horror, half-filled with glee, but before Link could answer, the back door slammed open, and a disheveled, half-dressed, and _extremely_ angry looking Marth came sprinting out, one side of his body covered in shades of white, red, and blue.

Toon Link had been looking at his hands almost guiltily, but had jumped with a squeak when the door slammed open, and started looking around frantically for a place to hide as Marth's eyes zeroed in on them. The prince of Altea began sprinting straight at them with a growl audible even from where they were. Several windows had opened as a few smashers peeked curiously out, Zelda, holding a mouth to her hand, among them.

Ness and Lucas had already jumped into a tree and were watching the drama unfold from a safe height, and the corners of Pit's mouth quirked upwards until, finally, he began laughing at the sight of Marth, who was by now halfway there (he wasn't one of the fastest characters in the game for nothing, and besides, he had vaulted over the patio fence; in his pyjamas, no less).

By this point, Link was already in hysterics, holding his sides as he was bent over, tears streaming from his eyes, so even though he tried to turn and run, he didn't stand a chance. A leaping Marth tackled him before he had taken three steps.

"You little-" Marth started to say as he began wrestling Link to the ground, the two dissolving into a tangle of limbs. Pit was still laughing from the sidelines, joined quickly by Toon Link, at least until the latter blinked and gulped as he remembered that he was probably going to be next, and ran off to hide. After a brief scuffle, Marth finally ended up on top, pinning Link to the ground, cheek smushed against the dirt. "You-" Marth panted. "You put them up to this, didn't you, you little-" The rest of his sentence was cut off by a yelp as Link flipped Marth over onto his side. They both scrambled to their feet, Link wary, Marth glowering and about to throw himself at Link again until Pit intervened, grabbing Marth by the shirt.

"Hey, hey, calm down guys," Pit said, a smile battling with a frown on his lips. "It was my partially my idea, so don't kill him or anything."

Marth grabbed Pit's wrist, as if to push him off, but his eyes remained focused on Link. "You're next, then," he snarled at Pit without looking. Then: "You!" he growled. "You scumbag! What kind of hero hits a sleeping person with a SMOKE BOMB?!"

"What kind of prince sleeps in the middle of the afternoon?" retorted Link.

"Most of them!"

"Even if they're in Smash?" asked Link dubiously.

"… That's not the point. You knew I was sleeping!"

Link snickered. "If you actually were, it's your fault for staying up too late talking to Shiida."

"I can't help the difference in our timezones! Not everybody's girlfriend is in Smash! Besides, I had today off!"

"So hurry up and get her over here! I've been telling you that forever!"

"You know she can't!"

The two stood there, glowering at each other, until Pit said, with a slight grimace on his face, "Uh, Marth?"

"What? Oh-" Marth said as he let Pit go. "Sorry."

Pit was rubbing his wrist, trying not to wince. "No problem. That's not why I spoke up, though. I was just wondering something."

"Yeah?" Marth prompted.

"Why did you have the window open if you were napping?"

Marth blinked, turning red slightly. "I like the fresh air."

Link laughed at that. "Liar! More like you were drying your-" He let out an undignified _squawk_ as Marth hooked his arm around his neck and pulled his head down and close to his body.

"Shut it, you! Don't even talk about that," he said as he started to noogie Link. "How'd you get that Smoke Bomb anyways?" he asked a struggling Link.

"Never- gah- used it- ack- from my last- UGH- brawl," Link said as he extricated himself from Marth's grip. "I got more where that came from," he added with a grin, rubbing his head.

"Really?" Marth said, anger disappearing from his voice. "Oi, Toonie," he called out to a bush several meters away. "Come here. I promise I won't hurt you. You guys too," he added as he looked up into the trees, searching for Ness and Lucas.

"What are you doing?" Link asked him quietly as Toon Link emerged from the bush, a branch stuck to his hair, and as Ness and Lucas alighted onto the ground beside them.

"Isn't it obvious?" responded Marth, smiling evilly. Pit, already understanding, was grinning from ear to ear and had gone to get his Mirror Shield. He whispered in Link's ear, and the two of them cracked identical grins.

* * *

Lucario was meditating quietly in his room. It was part of a routine, to heal his soul and mind, and to keep his aura strong. He'd done it often even before he'd joined the Mansion, but did it even more now. After all, the Mansion was not a quiet place. He knew that.

That didn't make the sounds any less annoying. His eyelid twitched as he heard a loud _thwack_ as the kids, presumably, started pelting balls at the Mansion again. Or more likely, they were trying to hit somebody's window, and were just missing-

His eyes popped open and his paw came up just in time to catch the ball that came whizzing through his window. He unfolded his legs, and let himself stop levitating to touch the ground, and walked over to the window, irked now. Sticking his head out the window, a few cries of "Sorry" floating up to him, he saw the group of young Smashers waving at him and pointing above him. Lucario looked up to the ceiling, rolled his eyes, and pocketed the Smoke Bomb before returning to his meditation.

He could always contemplate revenge later.

* * *

"Did he just roll our eyes at us?"

"I'm not sure. I didn't know Pokemon could roll their eyes."

"He took my Smoke Bomb, too."

"Whatever, you got more. Let's do it again! We'll get him this time!" shouted Marth.

"Aye aye, captain!" shouted Pit back, before he settled back into position.

_Thunk_.

* * *

By this point, Zelda had returned to reading her book. It really was quite a good book, and she'd been dying to know how it ended. From the sounds outside, she knew by this point that Link and the others were at it again, but she'd stopped paying them mind. Even when she heard Ike's voice shout "Oi! YOU'RE A DEAD MAN, MARTH!"

Even when it thudded against her window again. And again. And agai-

She slammed her book down onto the table and opened the window to glare at a distant Link, who was waving and grinning.

* * *

The sun was setting, and it was nearly dinnertime. By this point, the group of Smashers on the field had more than doubled in size. Red, Ike, Sheik, and Zelda had all come. Diddy had dragged his uncle along, and even Samus had come, bringing the recalcitrant Snake along with her. As such, the balls had been launched in wild and wilder ways, most of them backed by a lot sheer power. This was probably going to be the last one of the day, though, and so the kids returned to their original formation for the last ball, another Smoke Bomb this time. It was going to go into Ganondorf's room. (They all wisely agreed that it was probably a good idea to scatter once that happened. Even with Master Hand's protection, Warlock Punches HURT).

By this point, the kids were all pretty experienced at aiming at a particular window. Unfortunately, they were also pretty tired. Lucas was nodding off behind Ness as Link threw the ball in place of a napping Toon Link. Ness, noticing that Lucas wasn't paying attention behind him, managed to will himself awake enough to hit the ball perfectly, but Pit had stepped on one of his drooping wings while shifting the Shield's angle and tripped. Given the speed of the ball, it wasn't a huge difference; unfortunately. It was only a little off, so, instead of flying into Ganondorf's room, it spiralled off into one of a set of windows on the tallest floor. They all stared blankly, disbelieving, for a short moment.

"Uh-oh," Pit said, frozen on the ground. He summed up the group's feelings at that moment pretty well.

"When does Master Hand come back, again?" Somebody asked.

"Ten minutes."

"RUN!"

* * *

"So, let-a me get this straight," said Mario next morning at the breakfast table. "Pit-a is flying for as long-a as he can over a permanently lava-filled-a Brinstar, with-a 99 stock." Pit nodded with watery eyes. "Marth-a has to tip every target in-a less than a minute." Marth nodded with a sour look on his face. "And Link… has-a Cruel Brawl. Indefinite-a-ly." Link almost sobbed and over at the next table, Ganondorf snorted with laughter, and subsequently started choking on his pancake.

"Well, at least, in the end, Ganondorf still suffers," said Link morosely.

"Wonder why Master Hand kept the window open when he was gone, anyways," said Pit, pushing around his sausage with his fork.

"It's because the field's so far away from the Mansion. He never expected us to supercharge the ball to the point it'd fly far enough to hit the Mansion," explained a passing Samus around a croissant in her mouth.

"Oh, yeah. That's why I kept my window open, Pit," said Marth, remembering from yesterday.

Link sniggered from where his head was resting on his arms. "That doesn't even make sense, you terrible liar. Look at it this way; today, at least, you can use the laundry room. Come on, why can't you just admit that your window was open because-"

"Shut it!"

**A/N: So there you have it. Something that was meant to be short (say, a thousand words max) ended up more than doubling. And this is after I cut some stuff I didn't like out. As well as leaving a lot of the story blank for your imagination to fill. Man, writing a fic takes more time than I'd hoped it would. But, it's pretty fun :)****. Hopefully with experience I can manage to change focus, cause I don't want to only do the teenage boys, as fun and as relatively easy as it is. We'll just have to see, I guess. They might appear often enough for me to end up feeling like I have to tag them as main characters :/.**

**How did Lucario pocket the Smoke Bomb? Not telling :P. I'm usually not going to address "issues" in the chapter, you guys could always just ask me directly if you want to know, although if I get any overlap, I might post them in author's notes. There is one thing I'm not sure of, though, and that's Mario's accent. Let me know if you like or dislike it, and I might discontinue it depending on responses. I'll stop here, I think, and see you guys next time. Hopefully I can get another out by next week, as soon as I finish my midterms…**


	2. A Day in the Lounge

**A/N: Now that my midterm's done (where everything went better than expected :D), I started writing again. First review (tyvm, probieprincess!) has got me pumped up to write. Watch out, this one's longer than the one that came before; I need to stop trying to do so much, I'd intended for this to be way shorter. Lots of Sheik, less of Ike, and a little bit of a bunch of other characters. Hope you enjoy!**

**Disclaimer: I do not own these characters, stages, weapons, etc. Nintendo, Sega, Konami, etc.**

The lounge, after the dining hall, the brawl rooms, and the kitchen, was probably the most important room of the Mansion. It was located in the middle wing of the Mansion by the back, and was directly connected to pretty much every important room in the Mansion via a hallway. It also held a large 32-inch plasma screen TV, a couch and several armchairs, and a pool and a poker table. Except for late at night, when most Smashers would be sleeping, it was almost never empty.

Today, Sheik lay slumped on the couch, one finger idly twirling a needle as she watched a brawl in progress on the TV. It was a three-stock team battle on Hyrule Temple, with Samus and Zelda on one team, and Ike and Red, using Charizard, on the other team. So far, the girls were winning by one stock, their projectiles proving to be an effective barrier against their slow, large targets. The boys were slowly catching up, though, as they got used to the hail of projectiles and started dodging more frequently.

Sheik pursed her lips momentarily, the needle pausing, as one of the boys managed to hit Zelda with a smart bomb, knocking her off the stage and putting Samus in a bad position. From the way things were going, the girls would probably end up losing. Sheik could tell Zelda's heart wasn't really in the fight.

Somebody flopped into the armchair beside the couch with a loud sigh. Sheik pulled down her scarf and called out in greetings without taking her eyes off the screen, so she was surprised when she realized it was Marth who answered.

"That was pretty fast," she said, turning to look at Marth. The prince had obviously just come from his target practice punishment; sweaty and tired, he was still in his armour, sword laying across his lap. "Didn't you just go in ten minutes ago? There's no way you're done."

Marth, with his head tilted back and eyes closed tight, gave a little nod.

"Tipped every single one of the targets? There's no way."

"Yeah way."

"In a minute? How?" Sheik asked, impressed despite herself.

"I'm just that good," he replied. When Sheik rolled her eyes at him, he smirked, and elaborated. "You know how I never take any of Master Hand's challenges, like the home-run challenge?" Sheik nodded; Marth was infamous for it. "Master Hand's only ever seen me in brawls. Those fights are either pure chaos, where you can't tell up from down, or are duels against other Smashers, who all do everything in their power to avoid the tip. You're all good fighters," he admitted, "so you can all dodge pretty effectively. But something like tipping a stationary target-" he swung his blade almost casually, just barely scoring the back of the couch with the tip- "is easy as pie. He thought it was a punishment, but it was at most a nuisance," Marth finished with a low laugh.

He blinked, then, as if only then realizing what Sheik was wearing. "So what's going on with you? I thought Olimar was the only one who actually wore his costume outside of fights."

Sheik grimaced slightly as one hand snaked out to fiddle at her scarf. "I just had a brawl, and I still have a couple more later on today. It's just too much of a hassle to change out of my uniform, so I decided to keep it on."

"Oh, yeah, you guys all have extra fights because you were involved with the Smoke Bomb thing a few days ago, right? Sorry 'bout that," said Marth, frowning.

Sheik rolled her eyes. "It's fine, don't worry about it. It really was partly our fault, in the end, and, besides, it was fun." She chuckled. "Worth the extra couple fights."

They lapsed into a companionable silence afterward, watching the match intently. They both winced as Ike broke open a Smash Ball and immediately used it on Zelda. "That's gonna to leave a bruise in the morning," commented Marth, as Sheik covered her eyes with her hands. The Final Smash was enough to take Zelda's last stock, and she disappeared past the blast line.

Marth looked at Sheik. "How long until she gets here, you think?"

Sheik tapped her lips thoughtfully, and then said, "Ten minutes."

Marth snorted in disbelief. "No way. Link's not even in a real match, there's nothing for her to watch. She'll go to the baths like she usually does. Half an hour, at her fastest."

Sheik shook her head. "Ten minutes at most. You don't know because you've never done Cruel Brawl, Marth. It's the only challenge in which you can actually get injured. She'll definitely go there right after changing."

Sure enough, after five minutes (in which Samus made an amazing comeback by managing to get the two boys to smash each other), they heard a door slamming open from the changeroom hallway. "Damn it. Alright, I owe you dessert," Marth sighed, as Zelda came running into the room.

"Hey Sheik, hey Mar- Marth!" Zelda exclaimed as she almost ran right by them. "You're done already? Is Link?" She looked around, but the Hero of Twilight wasn't there.

"Sorry, Zelda, he's not done. He only leaves when Master Hand says he can leave, and I doubt it's been long enough for Master Hand to be satisfied. I just finished unusually fast," added Marth as Zelda sighed.

"Yeah… Wow, it's only been fifteen minutes. How did you finish so quickly?" she asked.

"I'm good." Sheik rolled her eyes, and Marth repeated his earlier explanation to a bemused Zelda, complete with another swipe of his sword. When he finished, Zelda's confused look hadn't yet disappeared. "Didn't you slip?"

"What?" said Marth, in the middle of resheathing his sword.

"How come you didn't slip on the ice?"

"What ice?" said Marth, who was now also confused. Sheik's breath caught as she realized what had happened, and she stifled a laugh.

"Weren't you doing Target Smash Level 4, like it said on the announcement board?" asked Zelda. "You know, the ice stage?"

Marth blinked. "There are different levels of Target Smash?"

Sheik started laughing. "You screwed up, Marth. You'd better go with Zelda and figure this out. She's done Target Smash before, unlike you, so she can point you in the right direction in case you mess up again."

"Come on, let's go," said Zelda, grabbing a shock-frozen Marth by the arm and dragging him to the door. "Seeya Sheik!" she said as she went out the door.

"Bye, Zelda!" replied Sheik. As an afterthought, she added with a shout, "Hey, Marth! Remember; I like cheesecake!"

That was enough to set off a loud round of cursing that faded slowly as the prince and princess went down the hallway. Sheik grinned as she tugged her scarf back up to cover her mouth. She settled into a more comfortable position, then cocked her head as she heard voices that she recognized coming from the opposite hallway. The door swung open and the voices suddenly became distinguishable.

"Man, I knew I should've changed to Squirtle," said Red as he and Ike entered the room. "What was I thinking, trying to chase somebody as quick as Samus down with Ivysaur?" he continued as Ike noticed Sheik.

"Hey Sheik," said Ike with an easy smile. Red stopped and greeted her as well. They were already both back in casual wear.

(Drat the boys who never needed to shower as long as the girls, thought Sheik. They all had such comfortable uniforms that were easy to change out of. In fact, Red was still in his signature black shirt; all he'd had to do was take off his vest.)

"Hey Ike, hey Red," replied Sheik, smiling back in return. "Good show out there."

The side of Ike's mouth quirked to the side at that, and he replied, "I guess. We lost, though. I probably should've tried to hit Samus with my Final Smash as well."

Red shook his head. "No, you were fine, Ike. They weren't going to stand beside each other and let themselves both get hit. They would've just stolen the Smash Ball instead. No, it was me who messed up. Why did I ever think that Samus would be a ground type?" He swiped at his hat. "Makes more sense for her to be a flying type; she was raised by birds! Agh…"

"Calm down, Red," chided Sheik. "It wasn't anybody's fault. On a stage like Hyrule, anybody could see that you were at a disadvantage from the start. You guys did pretty good, almost winning by the end. You guys know that Samus is just tricky that way."

"I guess…" said Red, unconvinced. His eyebrows then creased, and pointing, he asked, "What happened there?"

Sheik glanced at the cuts Marth had made in the couch, which were now leaking stuffing, and said, "Marth cut them when he came out of target practice."

"Wait, Marth's out?" asked Red. "Then, is Pit done too?"

"No," said Sheik, barely stopping herself from rolling her eyes. "Marth messed up. He's probably back in target practice again by now. Pit's definitely not done, either."

"Darn," said Red, looking disappointed. "I wanted to play the new Pokémon game with him, too. Eh, I'll go tell him I got it, anyways. Catch you guys later!" he said as he left. Right before the door closed behind him, Sheik caught him mumbling something that sounded like "Hope I don't distract him while he's flying."

* * *

At that exact same moment, Pit shivered suddenly and abruptly lost his concentration. He plummeted to the lava, scorching his behind, and bounced past the blast line. His eyes were rapidly blinking from fatigue as he returned to the revival platform, muttering, "What the heck was that?"

Forty-two more stock to go.

* * *

Ike looked at Sheik after Red left, eyebrow raised. "So what happened with Marth anyways?"

Sheik laughed at the memory and told Ike the whole story. When she had finished, Ike chuckled, and said, "You cocky little bastard, Marth. You totally had that one coming for you." He paused and thought for a moment. "Then again, who else but Marth could pull off something like that in under a minute? Imagine me trying to hit every target with just the tip of Ragnell." He laughed.

Sheik put on a frown and asked, "What, you don't think I could do something like that?" Her hand flashed out, and a flurry of needles struck the wall, quivering in place from the force of the throw. "How was that?"

"Impressive," grinned Ike, leaning over to inspect them. "But unfortunately, those aren't swords, so it doesn't count. Come on, let's take these out before Game&Watch sees them, or worse, R.O.B." He started pulling the needles out of the wall. Sheik hesitated, then went to join him, the two standing shoulder to shoulder as they pulled out needles. The door swung open right at that moment.

"Well, well, what do we have here?" said a deep voice behind them, amused. "Covering up the evidence of your vandalism?"

Sheik gritted her teeth in annoyance, and turned around. "Ganondorf. What do you want?"

Ganondorf raised his hands mockingly, a smug smile creeping across his face. "Now, now, Sheik, where are your manners? We're all friends here in this Mansion, aren't we?"

"Get out of the way, you conceited prick, you're blocking the door," said an irritated Samus behind him. She aimed a kick at his ankle that made him grunt and shuffle aside, and she walked right by him, a chessboard rolled up in her arms. Snake followed her in, a bag full of chess pieces in hand.

"Now, Samus, I was just concerned about the damages inflicted on the Mansion. Don't you think the ones who caused the damage should pay?" Ganondorf said, gesturing towards the wall.

Samus barely glanced at the wall before saying dismissively, "Wario does worse just by being there, he stinks up the place so much. Besides, shouldn't you be worrying more about the puddles you're leaving everywhere, you filthy hypocrite?" Indeed, there were dark footprints on the floor where Ganondorf walked, and his armour was unusually shiny…

"How come he's wet?" asked Ike, curious.

"Toon Link stole Mario's F.L.U.D.D. and has been following him around all day, spraying him whenever he sees him," said Snake as he upended the bag and dumped the chess pieces onto the table. The others all started laughing, and Ganondorf scowled fiercely.

"Very well, then, I shall take my leave. I have a fight to get to." He turned and left, back ramrod straight with affronted dignity. A few seconds after the door closed, they heard a loud, high-pitched voice shout "FOUND YOU!" followed by loud spraying sound and an angry roar. Ike, Sheik, and Samus looked at each other, and started laughing again. Snake let out a small smile as he began setting up the board.

"What are you going to do now?" Ike asked Sheik once they stopped laughing.

"I have a fight in half an hour, so I was thinking I might get lunch, actually," Sheik replied. "You hungry?"

"I guess… Um, actually, hold on, I sort of want to watch this," Ike said as he glanced at the chessboard.

Sheik held back a sigh. "Alrighty then, I'll go and find Zelda," she said, and left. Ike had already gone to watch the game in progress.

It was a very close game, both sides concentrating fiercely, neither side giving way. Snake was up by only a single pawn when Samus managed, quite suddenly, to put his king in checkmate. Snake looked for a way for his king to escape. Finding none, he tipped his king over in concession. "Damn," he said. Then, "Wanna play?"

It took Ike a moment to realize that Snake was talking to him. He blinked and said, "Sure, if it's alright with you guys." Samus nodded, and Snake got up to let Ike take his seat. Ike sat down, and after a little thought, moved his pawn forward.

(Right around this time, an exhausted Pit stumbled out of the Challenge room and fell flat on his face in front of a surprised Sheik. Zelda had already brought Link back to his room where he was now sleeping; she'd attended to his wounds. Marth was in still Target Practice Level 4, fuming, where he swung for, and missed, the target hidden in the alcove.)

Ten minutes later, Samus moved her second queen into position and said, "Checkmate." The board was half cleared of white pieces, with only a few pockets of white pieces mutually protecting each other. Samus, on the other hand, had only lost two pawns and a knight, and one of those pawns had been lost to promotion.

"Damn." Snake whistled. "I thought you were some tactical genius general. How'd you lose so badly?"

"Shut up, Snake," hissed Samus. "You wanna play against Snake now?" she asked Ike, who shook his head as he got up. "No, you guys play. I just want to watch."

Samus hesitated, then shrugged. "Alright." They reset the board and were midway into their next game when two doors slammed open almost simultaneously as a blue flash ran through the room. Captain Falcon, wearing some sort of towel turban on his head, chased after him, shouting "Give me back my helmet, Sonic!"

Ike blinked at the sight, a little curious as to what was going on, then dismissed them. He turned back to the chessboard, noticing that neither player seemed to have even registered the interruption. That changed when they heard a low _boom_, complete with a small shockwave that traveled throughout the mansion, come from the hallway the two speedsters had just gone down. Samus's head snapped up, and she said almost musingly, "That sounded like it came from my room." She stood, and said to them, "Hold on a minute, I'll be right back. Don't cheat, Snake." As she walked to the door, she muttered, "If those two bastards touched an inch of my room…" Her nostrils flared as she unholstered her paralyzer.

As soon as she left, Snake reached over and moved one of her pawns over one space. Seeing a surprised Ike watching him, he grinned and put a finger to his lips.

"Did you?... Was that you?" Ike asked, cocking his head towards the doorway.

Snake looked pleasantly surprised, and said, "You're smarter than you look, huh?"

Ike's eyebrows drew together at that, but Samus came back before they could continue. "It wasn't my room," she announced as she came back in. "Snake, you idiot, just how thick do you think I am? Put that pawn back to where it was before."

Snake grinned at her, unrepentant, as he moved the pawn back to its original place. They were about to continue the game when they heard Metaknight's voice shouting, loud and clear as a clarion call. "Watch out! Kirby in the Landmaster! Repeat: Kirby in the Landmaster, and coming towards the Mansion!"

Metaknight wasn't the only one who had started shouting, though. Several other Smashers were shouting, interspersed with Diddy Kong's screeches and Donkey Kong's deep, low chest beating. Loudest of all, though, was Peach, who shrieked, "My vegetable garden!" Then, after a short pause, "FOX MCCLOUD, FALCO LOMBARDI, WOLF O'DONNELL, YOU GET HERE RIGHT NOW OR SO HELP ME GOD, I WILL PUSH A FRYING PAN UP-"

Peach's voice was overcome the next moment by Kirby himself. The three Smashers in the lounge had gone to the window to look outside, only to see a Landmaster cannon pointed straight at them. Kirby, for his part, had seen them come to the window, and shouted "HI!" into the microphone of the Landmaster, nearly deafening everybody around (and waking up the poor boys and Zelda, who'd been resting). His stubby, flapping arms managed to accidentally hit a certain button, and the Landmaster cannon began charging. "WHAT THE FU-" shouted Snake, eyes wide, as the three of them ran for cover, but too late, far too late. The shot sped straight for the lounge window- and it stopped right there, dissipating as it hit an invisible barrier.

"KIRBY! GET OUT OF THERE!" shouted Ike as the three of them opened the door to the back and ran out onto the patio, trying to get him under control. The entire backyard teemed with chaos, with loud smacks, raised voices that now included some residents upstairs, like Marth, and Kirby all the while shouting "HI!" although, at least, he was a little further from the mic now, his flapping arms no longer hitting anything.

It was barely noon, now, and for once, the lounge was empty… almost. Mr. Game&Watch slid out from the crack between the bookshelf and the wall where he'd been sleeping, and fuzzily inspected the holes in the wall, the slashes in the couch, and the puddles on the carpet. He made noises of dissatisfaction, pulled some tools out of hammerspace, and started repairing the damage.

**A/N: So there you have it. Took a lot more time than I expected it to, I think I just couldn't focus my thoughts enough to write this. It started out pretty differently from the way it ended up finishing, so I'm sorry if the story seems to go in a weird direction to you. It just didn't quite feel right for me to not try and insert really bad humour into the story at this early point in time. Also, mini-Marth monologue. You might see a couple more of them, he just seems like the type to me lol. **

**Other characters; well, I won't give away too much of their characterization, you'll have to see what happens with them later on. I know I haven't touched some of the brawl characters yet; I apologize if I haven't addressed your favourite smasher yet, but I promise you I will get to them eventually! Finally, do I need to translate what Red's talking about with Pokémon types, or do you guys all know that stuff by heart? (Unlike me, who's never actually played a Pokémon game ^.^)**

**Edit: Oh yea, I forgot one thing. Sheik's a girl cause one, she's treated as one in Smash, and two, Brawl's enough of a sausagefest as it is.**


	3. Movie Night, and a Little Skype, too

**A/N: Hi guys, I'm back with another one of these oneshots. Sorry about the delay; went and visited some friends at another university and got sort of messed up, lol. Long story short, wanted to write, didn't end up being able to. As such, I sorta rushed this one without really planning things out. I'll be back with something a little smoother soon, I hope. Sorry about the mostly empty dialogue; I suppose you'll just have to guess who says what. Shouldn't be too hard, for the most part ^.^**

**Disclaimer: I don't own anything in here, which is a pity. I'd like to be able to play Uprising sometime.**

Lady Palutena, Goddess of Light, ruler of Angel Land, and original guardian of the Three Sacred Treasures, sat at a computer, adjusting her pair of reading glasses as she moved the mouse and pressed a green button. Voices began to come out of the speakers.

"_Here you go."_

"_Thanks. Oh wait, it's still black…"_

"_Just wait a bit."_

"_Oh, alright. Lady Palutena, can you hear me?"_

"Yes, Pit," said Palutena.

"… _Lady?"_

"Oh, oops," she said. _Forgot to turn on the microphone. Now, how do I do that again? Hmm…_ She stood and went to look for somebody to help her.

* * *

Meanwhile, on the other side of the connection, Pit frowned and leaned back in his chair, ignoring the voices coming from the couch behind him as he tried to fix whatever was wrong with the computer.

"Hey, make some space."

"Put that stupid sword in the corner first, and there might be a little. Link, shove over."

"I can't go anywhere! Just sit on the arm, idiot!"

"No can do."

"Argh-"

"Eeek-" A short scuffle ensued, then: "Link!"

"That wasn't me, Marth pushed me!"

"We wouldn't have this problem if you weren't such a fat elf."

"I am NOT an elf, and I'm just barely fat enough to push you OFF THE COUCH!"

"Try me! Nngh!"

"Nnngh!"

There followed the sounds of two guys trying to push each other off the couch.

"Sheesh, you idiots. Can't you guys sit on each other's laps or something?"

"… Didn't know you liked that sort of stuff, Sheik."

"Zelda on Link's lap, moron."

"Oh. Ok."

"I'm sitting down now." Several grunts ensued.

"Damnit Ike, you smell. Go put your sword back, take a shower, and get changed. We'll wait for you."

"No, you won't."

"No, he wouldn't," sniggered Link. "Prissy prince has no patience."

"Shut up."

A door opened, accompanied by the sounds of a few people walking in. A woman's voice said, "Get off the couch, you brats, you're going to break it. Can't you just sit on the floor like Red?"

An agreeing "Pika-pi" followed right afterwards, accompanied by a couple moans that were cut short by the sound of a paralyzer powering up.

"I mean it."

The silence that followed was punctuated by a wolf-whistle. "Hot."

"Shut up, Falcon." There were a few sighs, and the sound of people reshuffling by the couch.

"Goddamnit, Samus, why do you get to keep that gun outside of brawls?"

"It's not lethal," said Samus, sounding just a tad disappointed.

"Samus?" asked Pit, who had pressed a button and wasn't sure what had happened.

"Yeah, Pit?" said Samus, walking up to stand beside him.

"I think I did something wrong."

Samus sighed. "Yeah, you ended the call. I'll call her again."

* * *

Palutena blinked at the call tone. "This button?" she asked someone beside the computer.

"Yeah, if you want to see him."

She pressed the button, and the Skype video chat opened up.

"Hi Lady Palutena!" said Pit, amid cries of _"Wait, it actually works?" _and _"I told you so."_

"Hello, Pit."

"_Hey Pit, turn the camera over here so we can see her."_

"_Why don't you just go over and say hi to her from there?"_

"_I don't want to lose my seat."_

"…"

"_Put your pants back on, Pit! You don't do that when you're _talking_ to her!"_

"_Shut up," _yelled Pit back, blushing, before muttering, "_It's not a hot spring." _He turned back to the goddess and explained, "_My friends are idiots," _right before somebody planted a hand on his face and pushed his head to the corner of the screen.

"_Wow, this is really cool. Is that her? Can she see me?" _asked a blond teen with pointed ears. _"Man, Pit, you never told us she was this pretty."_

"_Did too," _said Pit thickly, mouth half covered by Link's fingers. Suddenly, he was released as another hand, this one more feminine, grasped Link by the neck and pulled him back. Its owner hissed, "_Go back to your seat, idiot," _before she popped into the screen, brown-haired and pointy-eared. "_Don't mind him; he's a bit of a fool sometimes. I am Zelda, princess of Hyrule."_

Palutena smiled at her image, and replied, "Nice to meet you, Zelda. I am Palutena, Pit's patroness."

"_Hold on a bit, Zelda,_" said Pit, standing up. "_Lemme show you my friends here," _he said, as the camera turned and a couch, surrounded by smashers, came into view. Several of them waved and called greetings.

"Hello, everybody," said Palutena. "I am Palutena. Knowing Pit, he's probably told you all about me."

A few of them nodded, and one blue-haired teen rolled his eyes.

"_Can you tell who's who?" _asked Pit, and even though he was offscreen, Palutena knew that he was grinning.

"I suppose I'll have to try, huh?" replied Palutena, smiling in return. "Thankfully, you've told me a lot about them. Hmm… I've already met Zelda, which makes her Samus, with that gun. That's Pikachu, of course, and that's Link on the floor over there. Looks like he's in pain."

* * *

Zelda lowered her hand guiltily, deactivating her choking magic.

* * *

"Sheik, Snake, Captain Falcon on the couch," continued Lady Palutena, "and of course, I can't mistake Red. I'm pretty sure Ike's the one with the sword, which makes Marth the one sitting on the couch arm."

"_Yep, you're completely right!" _said Pit, pushing the camera back into place and grinning. _"It's not all of them, but these are some of the friends I've made here."_

"You're enjoying the Mansion, then?"

"_Yeah! It's really fun, I met a lot of interesting people. We can fight all day if we want to, but it's really fun playing video games, too!_"

"Really? Have you played Super Smash Bros. Brawl yet?"

"_Yeah, although of most of them don't like playing it. I think they're embarrassed or something. We're about to watch a movie instead, actually."_

"Which movie?"

"_The new James Bond movie, Skyfall. Have you seen it?"_

"Oh, that movie! Yeah, I saw it, it's really good. I especially liked the ending, when-"

"_Ahhhh! Stop, no spoilers!" _Pit said, covering his ears and closing his eyes.

"Hehe," said Palutena, smiling mischievously. "Are you getting along with everybody?"

"_Yea. I barely see some of them, though. In fact, I don't think I've ever seen Mr. Game&Watch outside of a brawl, although everyone tells me he's somewhere."_

"Must be hard to see a two-dimensional shadow," Palutena commented wryly.

"_I guess," _Pit shrugged._ "How's everything over there?"_

"Busy, as usual. Viridi still wants to kill all the humans, so handling her has got my hands mostly full, and the Underworld's still pretty bold, even though Hades is gone. I also ended up starting that centurion boot camp, so we'll be a little better off even when you're gone."

"_Do you want me to come back?" _Pit asked, his expression uncharacteristically serious.

"Huh? No, it's alright, Pit. I'd prefer you stay there and enjoy yourself; you earned a break. I am the goddess of light. I can handle one or two teensy problems. Besides, Pittoo helps me out every once in a while." The figure beside her shifted.

"_Well, okay then," _said Pit. He looked like he was about to say something when he was interrupted by someone from his end, who said, _"Come on, Pit, we're about to start the movie." _He closed his mouth, then opened it again and said, "_I gotta go. Don't work too hard, milady. Do the centurions know you like your coffee with cream and two sugars?"_

Palutena laughed. "Stop worrying, Pit. Go and watch the movie with your friends."

Pit hesitated, then smiled. "_Okay! I'll call you again in a week, ok?"_

Palutena nodded. "Okay. Bye!"

"_Bye! Oh yeah, wait! If Pittoo's there, let him know that I asked Master Hand if he could come participate in Brawl, and Master Hand said it was alright! And you guys come visit on Visitor's day, ok?"_

"Yeah, yeah," said Palutena, laughing as she spoke. "I'll remember. Bye, Pit!" She ended the call, then turned to the person beside her. "I think he knew you were here, Pittoo."

Dark Pit grunted noncommittally. "Stop calling me that, Palutena."

"Don't worry, I won't," replied Palutena. "Aren't you happy he's enjoying himself?"

Dark Pit shrugged. "Not really." After a moment, he laughed. "He's really your pawn, though, isn't he? Right at the end, when he asked whether the centurions knew how you liked your coffee. Hah!"

Palutena poked him in the side, causing him to bend over. "He's not a pawn, Pittoo. Besides, what would that make you, since you're basically in the same position he used to be? You learned how I like my coffee, too, Mr. Intern." She began walking back to the altar, Dark Pit trailing behind her with one hand held to his side.

"Agh. Violent goddess. Brutal tongue, too. I don't even know why I stay with you."

"Maybe because you know that by doing this, you can keep Pit at the Smash Mansion where he's safe?"

"…"

"Or maybe, you have a crush on me?"

"… Fat chance, old lady."

"_What did you call me_?"

_Smack._

"Ouch!"

* * *

Meanwhile, in the Mansion lounge, Samus had turned off the lights. "Come on, Pit," said Red from somewhere by the floor. "Sit over here."

"Shh, it's starting," hissed a voice from the couch.

"Wait," said Zelda, and she dashed off. A moment later, she came back with a pile of blankets and pillows in her arms. "For the people on the floor," she explained, and passed them out as Link made an appreciative sound in his throat. Pit refused the offer of a pillow, instead opting to lay on his stomach, head held up by his hands, wings folded and feet pointing up. When everybody had gotten comfortable, they started the movie.

The opening scene had just started when the door slammed open, surprising the watchers and causing Pit to flex his wings, accidentally hitting Red in the cheek. Fox came dashing in, saying, "Are we too la- oh, shit." Ten pairs of eyes turned to glare at him. Three others followed in behind him: Falco shaking his head at Fox's antics, Wolf stalking in warily, and-

"Lucario?" asked Snake, mirroring everybody's surprise. "You came to watch?"

_You all seemed quite excited for this movie. I became interested and thought I would watch_, communicated Lucario telepathically.

"Alright, alright, come in already so we can continue," Samus said impatiently, unpausing the movie.

They managed to reach the end of the first scene ("Amateurs," commented Snake. "Shut up, Snake," said Samus, while Sheik added, "Nobody cares, Snake.") when they were interrupted again, this time by Bowser's complaining voice. "Why is it so dark in here?" he said, as he stomped into the room, followed by Ganondorf and Dedede.

"Movie night," Red piped up.

Ganondorf's eyes widened with glee when he saw what they were watching. "Aren't you a little late with this? I already know how it ends. Shall I tell you?"

"Don't you dare," said Samus.

"Nobody is who they seem to be. In the end, she- pfff-" Ganondorf was interrupted by a pillow to the face. Marth withdrew his hand, looking rather pleased with himself as he turned to face the screen again. Ganondorf grabbed the pillow before it could fall and tore it off his face. "How dare you, whelp," he hissed in a low voice, and threw it right back at Marth. Marth raised a fist without looking at the pillow, deflecting into the air where it spun once, twice, until it landed onto Lucario.

Everyone froze, as Lucario's red eyes flashed. A few seconds passed, then Lucario blasted it straight back at Ganondorf, knocking him off his feet, and grabbed another one, blasting that one at Marth. The second one missed, smacking Fox in the cheek. Then suddenly…

"Pillow fight!" shouted Pit, and he stood up and starting throwing every pillow within arm's reach.

The room quickly dissolved into flailing limbs as pillows were grabbed and thrown in every direction. Sheik sighed from her seat on the couch as she looked at the chaos around her. "We never can get through a movie in one sitting, can we?" she asked Ike.

"Sure doesn't seem like it," he replied, grinning. "I don't mind, though. Do you?"

Sheik paused, and smiled at him. "No, not really, I suppose."

"Well, then, come on, let's join in!" he said as he vaulted over the back of the couch. Sheik grinned as she swung, pillow already in hand, hitting Ike in the face mid-jump.

"Oof!"

Meanwhile, Link and Zelda hadn't moved from their blanket by the couch. From her position sitting in Link's lap, Zelda turned her head to look at Link. "That's Ganondorf out in the fight, Link. Shouldn't you be out there, you know, beating him with a pillow?"

"Mmm, that's alright," said Link, relaxed as can be. "I'm sure I can leave him to Marth. Besides, I really like where I'm at right now."

"Is that so?" giggled Zelda.

"Yep." Link leaned in for a kiss…

"Ahh!" And was promptly interrupted by an angel jumping on his back.

"PDA! PDA!" hollered Pit from his seat on Link's shoulders.

"Come on, Link, pay up!" shouted Red over the noise with a grin on his face. "You lost the bet against Marth!"

"Goddamnit," Link swore. "Can't you guys leave me alone for a second?"

"Nope!" shouted Pit, grinning cheekily.

"Money is money," shouted Red, almost sagely but spoiled by his wide grin and the fact he was shouting.

Beside Link, Zelda exhaled and shook her head with a rueful smile.

Meanwhile, other Smashers had heard the ongoing fight and come to investigate, Sonic the first among them. They, without exception, joined the chaos.

So passes another day in the Mansion.

**A/N: Whew. Had some trouble with this, for some reason. Some awkward parts, and I originally meant the Skype call to be way shorter. Guess that's the unconscious influence of the part of me that really wants to play Uprising. Just from some of the quotes, it seems like a ton of fun ^.^**

**So, guess it's still easiest for me to write for the human(oid) characters. Next up will probably be a bit of Lucario, since I've managed to flesh out a good part of his personality. Beyond that, well, we'll have to see. It's really hard, for some reason, for me to try to characterize some of the Smashers. It's a little easier with the characters that are human, but there are exceptions to that, as well. In particular, Mario and Luigi really give me trouble, since they're just so damn generic, and I really don't want to touch the brothers angst thing…**

**Oh well, enough of my problems. Ty for my second review, MetallicaKnight, I'll try to keep my humour and good cheer up ****. See you next time.**


	4. A Spot of Revenge

**A/N: Hey guys, I'm back! Sorry about the wait, I've been sort of busy recently trying to catch up on work and some other stuff. Here's the Lucario chapter, as promised, although, like most of the other stories, it ended up being about a bunch of characters at once. The plot's pretty roundabout this time, too… Guess that's what happens when you try to fit a dozen ideas in one chapter -.-**

**There are a bunch of references/shoutouts/innuendos in this particular chapter, moreso than others. Kudos to you if you can find them, and let me know which ones you like best ^.^**

**This chapter also marks the first chapter in which I begin to lean on the fourth wall. Is this going to turn into a trend? I honestly don't know yet, lol.**

**And of course, ty for the reviews, tresorofchaos and SkYeLiMiT. Your feedback is always appreciated :)**

**Disclaimer: I do not own these characters, etc, etc. Seriously, does anybody ever read these anyways?**

"…"

"… Link…"

"… Link!..."

"Oi, Link!" Link blinked as he surfaced from a daze. "You gonna throw the ball or what?"

"Yeah, sorry," Link called to Ike, looking down at the ball in his hand, and then looking around him in confusion. "Hey Ike, remind me why we're doing this again?"

Ike blinked in surprise. "What?"

"Just tell me."

Ike looked confused, but he did so anyways. "Well, let's see. Master Hand took the kids to the amusement park; most of the adults went on some trip to the town close by; Marth's in his room hooked on his new anime; Pit and Red are off having Pokémon battles somewhere; and the girls just came outside. We were hanging out when you said you were bored and took me outside to play catch."

"Oh, right," Link said, memories coming back to him. "That was strange."

Ike had traded his confused look for questioning one. "Do you have short-term memory loss or something?"

"Not normally," replied Link, shaking his head. "It was just a weird moment. For a second, it felt like somebody just dropped me in the middle of things without a proper introduction or any exposition."

"…"

"Or maybe a short chunk of time just disappeared from my memory. Man, I don't know," said Link, irked at the smirk on Ike's face.

"You sure it wasn't because of Zelda?" Ike asked, jerking his head towards the group of girls sitting on the patio. "I mean, she _is_ wearing a nice summer dress."

"A little bit, maybe," answered Link, gazing at Zelda. As he fell into a slight daze, his face fell into an idiotic expression.

"You wanna go to her?"

Link blinked as he registered Ike's voice, then shook his head. "Nah, I'm pretty sure she's in the middle of some secret girl-talk with the others; she chased me away earlier. Let's just keep going."

They passed the ball back and forth between themselves a few more times, until Ike finally stopped. "Link, this is boring. Let's go back inside and play Brawl."

Link frowned at him. "Again? We've already done that."

"Come on, you know you want to."

"No way!"

"Fine," said Ike, eyebrows drawing together. "Let's make this interesting, then. Whoever hits the roof of the Mansion first gets to choose what we do next."

Link looked up at the Mansion, considering. Four stories wasn't too easy, but it wasn't hard, either. "Alright, but I go first."

"Go ahead."

Link took a pitcher's position, then, with a sharp twist of his body, threw the ball at the Mansion's roof. It flew a little too low, bouncing off the drain pipe and fell down, with a low _thud_, into a flowerbed.

"Heh. My turn," said Ike, before he ran to pick up the ball. "Don't worry, Link, I'll let you choose my character."

Link flipped his middle finger at him, but Ike just grinned. Then, he took a few halting steps back, before bursting into a three-step sprint that culminated the ball leaving his hand, arcing up to the Mansion.

Link was already shaking his head when it plopped almost quietly into Lucario's window. "Choose your character, my ass. What were you aiming for, your window? Because if so, you aimed a little low."

"Shut up, Link," Ike said out of reflex. "What can I say, I'm bad at throwing stuff," he remedied, abashed.

"Man, that was one of the worst shots that could've happened. Lucario's the worst sort of person to annoy," Link sighed. Then he clenched his fist as he realized something else. "Darn it, that's the fifth ball I've lost this month, too. That's my quota gone... Stupid Lucario, never giving them back. Where does he even hide them, anyways? There have been so many, there's no way he could hid them in his closet…"

"Hold on, Link," said Ike, staring at the window. "Lucario hasn't popped his head out like he usually does. Maybe he didn't hear it?"

Link brightened immediately. "If he didn't hear it, maybe he's still asleep," Link said slowly.

"If he's still asleep, it's still there," Ike replied.

"If it's still there, we can save it."

"Yeah, but there's no way his door's unlocked, not since the chocolate sundae incident."

"But his window's open, which means…"

"We need Pit."

"Let's go find him!"

* * *

Contrary to what Ike and Link believed, Lucario _was_ awake, and the ball was most definitely beyond saving. While he usually simply hid the balls that landed in his room, this particular ball had dropped into his lap, sparking a spontaneous fit of fury. After Lucario had finished with the ball, he tried to calm himself by sitting down and counting numbers in his head. _Pit, 8. Marth, 9. Link, 10. Ike, 7… No, that is too much. I must take action._

He stood and silently ghosted out of his room, clinging to the walls and ceiling to remain silent. In a way, today was a perfect day for him to exact his revenge; most of the smashers he currently held a grudge against were still in the Mansion, and the others were out of the way, so they were less likely to get involved

Lucario was clinging to the ceiling at the junction of two hallways when he realized he would need to plan things out to some extent, at least. _Remember, non-lethal, and no collateral damage._ To that end, he thought for several moments there, hanging upside-down, head appendages hanging (and scaring poor Jigglypuff back into her room when she peeked out her door and caught a glimpse of him) until he had composed a few plans. Then he set off to implement them.

* * *

Ike and Link had searched the Mansion, but hadn't been able to find Pit. They now both stood in front of Marth's door to ask him if he knew where the angel had hidden himself away.

Link raised a fist and pounded repeatedly on the door. Maybe half a minute had passed when, all of a sudden, the door flew open, followed closely by an English-Japanese dictionary that nearly hit Link in the head.

"Holy-! What the hell, Marth! Don't go throwing your books around at people, idiot!" Link shouted.

"What do you want? I'm watching something here,_"_ said Marth shortly. He was still in his pyjamas, eyes bloodshot, and tired and grumpy looking. It was clear that he was suffering from a lack of sleep; he looked for all the world like some sort of sour, blue-haired zombie.

"Che," said Link, annoyed, but keeping it in check. "Have you seen Pit?" he asked as Ike picked the book up.

"No." Marth gestured for the dictionary. After receiving it, he moved to close the door, but Link grabbed the edge of the door, keeping it open.

"You know anybody else who can climb up to a third-floor window?" Link asked.

"Snake, Meta Knight," said Marth, counting on his fingertips. He looked as if he were going to put up one more finger, but then he frowned, and the finger remained down. "A couple more, probably."

"Darn it." Link sighed. "They're both on the trip, aren't they?"

"Yes," said Marth shortly, crossing his arms.

"Damnit. Why didn't we go with them in the first place?"

"You wanted to stay with Zelda," replied Ike. "I was in the middle of a workout. Marth was…" Ike looked at him, questioning.

Marth grunted. "Wasn't interested in what they were buying."

Link blinked in surprise. "Wait, you know what they're shopping for?"

Marth's eyebrows rose. "You don't know?"

* * *

The first victim was Pit. Due to Lucario's sensitivity to the aura, he could feel where Pit was hiding in the Mansion. He'd gotten lucky; Pit was near a very convenient place for Lucario. The problem was that Red was with him. Lucario had no serious grievance with Red. In fact, he thought Red was a very respectable person, as much as a wild Pokémon could respect a trainer. He would not involve Red; thus, he had to separate him from Pit. Thankfully, Lucario knew just the thing to do. He made a pit stop by the freezer first, opening the electronic lock with the combination he had seen R.O.B. use on one of his frequent haunts around the Mansion.

* * *

"Hold on, Red," said Pit, standing up and yawning widely. "I gotta go to the bathroom."

"Alright," replied Red, nodding at Pit before focusing his attention back on the screen as he reorganized his team.

Pit unfurled his wings and stretched as soon as he came out of one of the rooms full of old junk in the basement. He had just passed the boiler room when he caught the hint of an unmistakeable scent on the air. His body went tense, his mind going straight to full alert. He followed the scent into the boiler room.

He turned on the light as he slowly moved further and further into the room, unable to believe what his senses were telling him. He was completely on edge when he finally saw, balanced on the edge of the huge fan at the end of the room, what he knew had to be there:

A bowl of mint chocolate ice cream.

He hesitated for an instant, knowing that this was too good to be true, senses screaming otherwise. With a shout of delight he launched himself across the room at the bowl when, suddenly, for no reason at all, it tipped. Time seemed to pass in slow motion as Pit, too far to do anything, watched the ice cream fall slowly, agonizingly, onto the floor with a splat.

"NOOOOOOO!"

* * *

Lucario watched from nearby, hidden by the shadows cast by all the machinery in the room. He was nearly doubled over in silent laughter, thread in paw, not ten yards from the shaking form of the angel kneeling on the floor. A few seconds passed, in which Lucario regained control of himself, feeling hugely satisfied.

Then, as if he had come to a decision, Pit suddenly looked up and yelled, "Floor ice cream gives you health!" Without further ado, he proceeded to stuff his face with the ice cream on the floor, looking inexplicably happy.

Lucario blinked in surprise, and after a few seconds of watching Pit eating merrily, began to feel as if the initiative had somehow been taken away from him. Still… _Pit, 0._ Somewhat annoyed, he left the room as silently as he had come in.

* * *

"No way!" shouted Link. "You're joking!"

Marth ignored him and looked at Ike. "Did you know?"

Ike grimaced. "I sort of guessed it, but I didn't think it was actually true."

Marth looked at Link, then back at Ike. "Look," he said, exasperated. "The girls are all still in the Mansion. Everybody on that trip is an adult man. Think about that. Besides, I can't think of any other reason why they would keep the trip a secret from Master Hand."

"Really?" asked Link doubtfully. "I can't imagine it of Metaknight." Beside him, Ike winced as if he had just imagined something particularly gruesome.

"Well, they're not all going to buy it, obviously. That'd be stupid." Marth shook his head. "What did you need them for, anyways?"

"Well…" Link said, as he and Ike looked at each other.

They explained the situation to Marth as shortly and as quickly as possible. By the end, Marth had an expression somewhere between exasperation and the conviction that he was looking at two of the biggest idiots in the world. He opened his mouth, as if to comment, then grimaced and closed it, before opening it again. "You better give up on the ball," he said. "It's not worth the risk of Lucario finding you two in his room. You know how he gets."

Link winced at the memory, but said anyways, "I can't. It's the fifth ball I've lost this month. Master Hand's not going to give me another one. I'm not going through the rest of the month without any balls."

"Hold on, Link," said Ike, expression indicating that he was deep in thought. "I think we can get it ourselves, without anybody else's help."

"What? How?" Link asked, his head jerking to look at Ike.

"My room's right above Lucario's, remember?" explained Ike. "If we had a rope, we could hang it outside the window and climb down into his room."

"Oh, yeah!"

"… You're sort of stupid, aren't you?" Marth said to them, expression now solely one of exasperation. "I'd sorta like to know how it took you so long to realize, but I'm almost afraid to ask."

"Yeah, yeah, whatever," said Link, flipping his hand in a dismissive gesture at Marth. "Go watch your anime, we don't need you anymore."

At that, Marth straightened. "_Arigatou gozaimasu, Link-sama_," he said formally, expression deadpan. He bowed low, then went back into his room before slamming the door shut.

"… What did he just say?" Link asked Ike.

"Not sure."

"Whatever. Let's go find some rope."

* * *

The second victim was Marth, and the plan for him was simple. There wasn't much for Lucario to do; the major part of this revenge depended on whether he was lucky or not. So, as soon as he found the router for the Mansion's wi-fi, he disconnected it, and went immediately to stand outside Marth's room.

On his way there, he had to hide in a side corridor in order to let Link and Ike pass. Their conversation's significance was not lost upon Lucario, and his eyes narrowed. He would have to take care of them right afterwards.

Lucario went to stand outside Marth's room, a little bit impatient. He waited a minute, and then two. And then:

"What the hell?" There came the sound of several keys being typed furiously. "Noooo! Stupid internet! NOO! NAGISA-CHAN!"

_Lucky. _He'd cut Marth off from the internet at about the right time, from the sound of it. _Marth, 0._ Lucario paused to savour the moment a bit before ghosting off to find Ike and Link.

* * *

"Are you sure this is going to hold?" Link asked Ike, tugging at the makeshift rope.

Ike looked up from his seat on his bed, where he was tying bedsheets together into knots. "It should. It's not like we've got any other options, right?"

"Yeah. Too bad Master Hand locks up the changeroom whenever he's not here, or I could've used my chain," Link said, tightening a loose knot.

"At least we'll only have to use it once. Once we get the ball, we can just walk out his bedroom door," offered Ike.

"No, we can't. We have no way of locking the door behind us, and Lucario _always_ locks his door," noted Link. "He'd know, and he wouldn't stop until he found us. We go back the same way we came."

"Damn, you're right. Well, at least I'm done," Ike said, standing up. "Eleven feet should be long enough, even if we tie one end to the radiator."

"Yeah. Now we just gotta figure out who's gonna go get the ball."

They looked at each other.

"…"

"…"

"Rock, paper, scissors, best two out of three?" Ike suggested.

"Deal."

In the end, Ike lost 2-0 and had to go down the rope. "Don't worry," Link told him cheerfully. (_Bastard,_ Ike thought. _You don't have to look _that _happy._) "I'll be right here, as emotional support."

"You could help hold the rope, you know. So in case it loosens, you might save me?"

"That too."

Ike looked out over the windowsill and gulped. He wasn't exactly afraid of heights, but somehow the makeshift rope, with Link in charge of the other end, did not reassure Ike. He checked the knot around his waist one last time, making sure it wouldn't slip, and climbed out the window. With a heave, he pushed his legs, then his torso, off the windowsill, then started moving his hands down.

Whatever bricks the Mansion had been built out of, they fit together a little too well. The cracks between the bricks, where the mortar stuck them together, were a bit too small for Ike's fingers; he was hanging on by the very tips of his fingers, and his feet had absolutely no hold whatsoever, floating somewhere between the top and the bottom of Lucario's window. A quick glance down told him that the windowsill was just a few feet away. He could surely handle a two foot drop. He let his fingers loosen until he dropped.

And stopped, a foot below his original position. He tried to look for some sort of handhold, but the only thing he could grab on was the rope, so he just hung there. _Damn_. "Link, can you let out some rope?" he called out.

"Yeah, just a sec," he heard back. He let out a sigh of relief, and then finally heard the voices coming up from below.

"What's he doing?" That was Peach's voice, scandalized.

"Pulling some idiotic prank on Lucario, probably." _Kind of the opposite, Samus._

"Oh my god, Link probably corralled him into doing this." _You're exactly right, Zelda! T_T_

"Hey Ike! How you doing?" That was Sheik, grinning up at him and waving.

"I'm alright, just sorta hanging around," he offered back. The four of them simultaneously face-tabled.

"Alright, you keep doing whatever it is you're doing," Sheik yelled, a hint of a bruise on her forehead.

"Yeah." Ike was going to say more, but the rope suddenly jerked, and with a sickening lurch, he dropped a couple feet onto the windowsill. When he looked back down again, the girls had gone back inside. "Thanks, Link," he called out, half-sarcastically. There was no reply.

Once he had untied himself from the rope, he looked around inside the room. It was fairly bare, just furniture and accessories; it seemed as though Lucario had few personal belongings. The desk, shelves, the bedside table, they were all bare. He looked at the bed. Lucario was gone. Ike frowned. Had he gone to the practice rooms, or the lounge, maybe, and just missed seeing the ball? In that case, then, the ball would be somewhere not easily visible.

Ike's eyes then alighted on the crack between the radiator and the wall. There was a ball there, green, but covered with dust. He reached his arm into the crack and managed to pick it up. He dusted it off, then put it in his pocket.

"Oi Link, I'm coming back up!" There was no reply, but Ike started climbing up anyways, shimmying up the rope. He was a couple feet up when he realized a few things. One, the ball he had thrown into Lucario's room could not possibly have fallen into the radiator. The dust on top proved that, if the improbability did not. That could only mean Lucario had seen it and gotten rid of it. Two, Lucario was out of his room, probably looking for the culprit by now. Three, Link wasn't responding. That probably meant something had put him out of commission, and that something would be Lucario, which meant four: he was screwed.

Then suddenly, in the middle of his musings, the door to Lucario's room slammed open.

_Shit._ Ike climbed as fast as he could, knowing that Lucario had probably already seen him, but knowing this was the only chance he had of escaping. It was only when the window slammed shut, and he looked above him and saw that his window was also closed, that he realized he'd fallen into a trap.

_Lucario's trapped me outside, hanging by a bedsheet. _He looked down at Lucario's window to see the Pokémon grinning maliciously at him, then looked in his own window and saw Link, out cold and looking like an idiot, on his bed. _That bastard…_

* * *

_Ike, 0, _Lucario thought, satisfied, as he went back up the stairs with an item in hand. There was only one thing left to do. _Link… almost 0._

He went back into Ike's room and rapped on his window, alerting the teenager who was now sitting on the windowsill outside. He looked cross, understandably, but Lucario didn't care about that. Instead, he motioned Ike to look, as he uncapped the marker in his hand and walked over to the unconscious Link.

_Cat whiskers or French mustache?_ he asked Ike.

Ike blinked, his face going through a range of expressions, before settling on amused. "Cat whiskers," he said, voice distorted by the glass.

* * *

"So, Link," Zelda asked teasingly the next morning. She was sitting on her bed in her room. "Have you learned your lesson?"

"What lesson?" Link said grumpily, from his spot in front of Zelda's mirror. He was scrubbing hard, but ineffectually, at his face.

Zelda couldn't hold it in anymore. She giggled. "To not annoy Lucario, of course!"

Link whirled around, face contorted in an angry expression. Unfortunately, it just made the marks on his face more prominent. "That goddamn Pokémon," he raged, swiping at the spiral patterns on his eyelids, at the cat whiskers on his cheeks, at the soul patch on his chin. "Why'd he have to go and use permanent marker? I swear, next Brawl I have with him, I'm going to whoop his ass."

Zelda laughed out loud, which only cause Link to glare at her. When she was done, she looked fondly at Link for a little bit, then abruptly got up. "I'm going to get breakfast. You like your eggs sunny-side up, right?" she asked Link.

"Yeah… why?"

"I'm going to get your food for you, of course," Zelda laughed. "After all, you can't exactly go out in public right now, can you?"

"Oh, right," said Link. "Thanks."

"Be right back." With that, Zelda gave Link a quick kiss on the cheek, then left, humming, as she went to the cafeteria. Link stayed behind, alone in her room, with a pleased expression on his face, unconsciously rubbing his cheek with his left hand.

**A/N: Whew, finally done. A little longer than expected (longest chapter yet), and the focus sorta ended up being on three people at once, but I sort of like how it ended up finishing. Sorry about making Link such a complainer; although he's more of one than Marth or Ike, he's not really meant to be so whiny. Part of the problem was that while he had his normal whiny parts, I also sort of ended up making him my mouthpiece in explaining some aspects of how the Mansion works ^.^ Gonna try to avoid that next time.**

**I'm sorry about only really giving Link a separate ending to this little event, but honestly, I felt like there wasn't really any need to go into detail for the others. After all, stuff happens, and not everyone's aftermath is going to be so fluff-filled. That'd be way too excessive. Then again, most of the gags are pretty bad...**

**Also, Lucario is quite a strange character, even to me. Hmm. Man, maybe my head is just weird, but the less the character looks human, the more extreme they seem to become. Maybe something I should try to fix, as a writer? Hopefully, he's at least interesting as a character. Just in case you were wondering, that's literally how he meditates (a.k.a. relaxes): he counts how much people have wronged him. As long as there's enough people who have done at least something to him, and nobody who has done too much to him (too much being somewhere in the 8-10 range), it's restful. For some people, it's actually quite soothing; maybe you guys could try it sometime :)**

**One thing that I didn't end up fitting into the story: when Ike explains to Link why they were outside playing catch, he's quite literal. The exchange would have been something like this:**

**Link (reading manga on the couch of the lounge, suddenly tosses the comic away and sits up): "Gah, this is boring. Let's go play catch, Ike."**

**Ike (looks up from television): "Ok."**

**(They go outside.)**

**Ike and Link are both pretty straightforward guys, eh? :)**

**Anyways, that's all for now. I'm hoping to release at least two more chapters before Christmas, but given my finals, I might not be able to T_T I promise I will do my best. See ya next time!**


	5. Apologies, Between Friends pt 1

**A/N: Best way to procrastinate for finals; write out a ridiculous mini-arc for your fanfic ^.^ I brought this out because I won't be able to do this for a short period of time soon, and it's something that's been weighing on my mind so in a way, it's nice to get it off my chest. **

**Before you go off and start reading, be warned. This chapter is something a little different from before. Let's see what's different… Flashback, Master Hand (who is very different from the way he is in the games), a bunch of instances of me loading Chekov's Gun, and some other stuff I shouldn't spoil here cause it's at the end of the chapter. Enjoy :)**

**EDIT: Little bit of retro-editing to make the arc flow a little smoother to the next chapter. (Also to fix typos. Man, was this one bad.) Was too indecisive when I first wrote this, but things should make a little more sense now... Also, really really sorry, but I probably won't be able to do anything about the next chapter for a week, at least. Finals suck :/**

**Disclaimer: NONE OF THIS IS MINE, OK?! Actually, this is probably the only chapter in which this is a lie. There's a little bit at the end that is. :)**

_One year earlier._

It was the middle of April. The air was still chilly, but the trees were budding nonetheless, and the grounds were covered in fallen cherry blossoms. The Mansion stood proudly in the distance, framed by the light of the setting sun, shadow covering most of the Mansion's grounds. The wind cut like a cold knife, but it did not touch the motley crew gathered within the grove at the end of the path.

That group was, of course, the current generation of Smashers. Here and there one of them shivered in the cold; they were all still wearing clothing from their own world, and it would take a few weeks before they began to wear more comfortable clothing. They did not yet think of themselves as a proper group, yet. Each carrying their own emotional baggage, they were still unsure of each other and of how their previous bonds and feuds would shape their days in the Mansion.

At this moment, however, they were united in their actions. Though the range and degree of their reactions varied from Smasher to Smasher, they were all looking at one man, who stood a little apart from the rest, as if he had just said something outrageous.

"Hold on, what do you mean, we can't show ourselves to the inhabitants of this world? Half the reason I came was to experience another world, and now you're telling me I have to stay hidden away?" growled Wolf. Most of the others seemed to share this sentiment; several nodded in approval.

The man addressed frowned slightly. He was a little taller than average, with wild blond hair the colour of straw. He wore a long, black trench coat over a silver dress shirt and a dark blue tie that matched his sapphire eyes. He had a wide mouth suitable for smiling, but at the moment he wore a slight frown, as if he were confused at how somebody could make such a mistake.

"No, you misunderstand me," he said, with a light, unidentifiable accent. "I have no desire to deprive you of any experiences you might have. I will give you the proper explanation tomorrow, but let me offer this. Imagine what would happen in your own worlds if you ever came across a group like this. The results would be a major hassle, no? Of course, if you are able to disguise yourself appropriately, there is nothing stopping you from socializing with others outside of this Mansion. If it helps, think of it as a courtesy to this world, as the only world that could host such a gathering."

"Then-a, what-a happens if-a one of us is-a recognized, Master Hand?" asked Mario.

Master Hand cocked his head to the side slightly, as if the answer were obvious. "The same as if you were to kill somebody here. You would have to answer to me." The wind died downed abruptly, and there was a short silence. Then, Master Hand smiled disarmingly. "Of course, I do understand that accidents happen, and that no one person can be perfect, which is why if something occurs, you will all be held at least partially responsible."

A chorus of protests greeted this statement, but Master Hand ignored them. The sun slipped over the horizon. "Let's go back into the Mansion," he suggested. "It's getting chilly outside."

* * *

_Present day._

It was a bright spring day at the Mansion. Birds were chirping and the sun was shining, yet, for once, the Mansion was quiet, almost completely silent. The only noises within the Mansion were the sounds of the laundry machines, the quiet, happy chirping coming from R.O.B. as he washed dishes, and the occasional snore that came from some dark corner in the Mansion where Mr. Game&Watch was dozing.

The rest of the Smashers were at the stadium about a mile away. The stadium was usually only used once a month, for special events or holidays where the Smashers could showcase themselves in front of an audience that probably thought they were watching actors and special effects. Today was not one of those special days; today's match had been completely spontaneous, and so the stadium was completely empty except for the Smashers, who were dotted around the empty place in a couple groups. They were here to watch a four person free-for-all match that Master Hand had decided should be held in the stadium.

The source of this match was from two separate events the day before. The first happened at breakfast, when Marth, no longer looking like a room-zombie, marched up to Lucario and challenged him to a match. The second happened when Link, who hadn't heard of Marth's challenge, saw that he was not due to brawl against Lucario for some time and also demanded a match, in the middle of lunch.

Somehow, Master Hand had heard of the two challenges, and had found the news diverting. He certainly seemed amused when he announced at dinner that there would be a special match the next day for Marth, Link, Lucario, and Ike, to be held at the stadium "in honour of unfulfilled grudges."

So here they were today, waiting for the match to start as the sun starting setting. The Smashers had gotten bored of waiting and were in the middle of pointing out weirdly-shaped clouds ("Hey, doesn't that one look like Samus outside of her power suit?" "Snake, my butt is not that big.") when Zelda joined them, a little out of breath. "It should be starting soon," she explained in response to a couple quizzical looks.

"Wishing Link luck?" asked Peach with a knowing look. Zelda nodded.

"I can't wait until it starts, but, man, I don't know who to cheer for," said Red, loudly. The Pokémon gathered around him looked at him sourly as if the answer was obvious.

"You don't have to cheer for a particular person," said Captain Falcon sagely. "Just cheer for a good, clean fight."

"So you're not cheering for anybody?" asked Red.

"Me? I'm not cheering for anybody." Captain Falcon grinned. "I do hope Lucario loses, though." The Kongs nodded and hooted in approval; they'd been the victims of one of Lucario's revenges before that involved the disappearance of every single banana in the Mansion, including the hidden stockpile in Diddy's room.

"Me, I want Marth to lose," Sonic spoke up from the other end of the group. "He's been winning so much, he's getting cocky."

"Don't mind him," said Captain Falcon loudly, pretending he was confiding in Red behind a raised hand. "He's just sour cause Marth tipped him while he was running at full speed."

"It was a lucky hit," yelled Sonic at Captain Falcon, standing on his chair.

"It was not," replied Captain Falcon, standing up to glare at Sonic. "Even on a bad day, I could hit you running at your fastest nine times out of ten.

"Are you trying to start a fight with me?" growled Sonic, walking over armrests to stand in front of Captain Falcon.

"Maybe I am. What're you gonna do about it, punk?" growled Captain Falcon back, jutting his face close to Sonic's.

"Final Destination, one-stock, after this match," stated Sonic. "Hope you got change on you. You're gonna buy me a Coke afterwards."

The two glared at each other, faces sticking perilously close to each other. Samus rolled her eyes, then kicked them both in crotch. As they both writhed on the ground, Samus stood up. "Sonic, don't stand on my arm, you idiot. Falcon, don't ever block my view unless defenestration sounds like a nice word to you. Go and get back to your seats, morons." Nearby, Snake grinned at their misfortune.

Peach, two seats above, sighed and muttered under her breath, "Boys. They're not even the worst ones, too." A little louder, she said to Luigi, "You know, I hope Link loses. Maybe then he'll learn to not be so disruptive all the time."

Zelda shot up from her seat abruptly, fire in her eyes and floating around her hands. "Who said that?" she hissed. "Who wants Link to lose?"

Everybody froze, except for Sheik, who, slumped in her seat, offered calmly, "It was probably Ganondorf."

Zelda's eyes swung left and zeroed in on the small group of villains where Ganondorf sat, and everybody took a breath. "That lowbrow piece of scum. Just look at him," she hissed. "I bet he's plotting something."

Sheik leaned forward to look at them, then commented drily, "No, I think they're just swapping stories."

A bunch of yells came from a small group a few seats down and to the right, where Ness, Toon Link, and Popo were all fighting in a small bundle of fury, while Nana and Lucas watched, as if uncertain what to do. "Mario!" scolded Peach. "How many times have I told you to put your F.L.U.D.D. away where the kids can't find it?" She got up and started to make her way down the aisle, while Mario spluttered in indignation at her.

The sound of fluttering wings made Sheik look up. She smiled and waved in greeting. "Hey Pit."

Pit dropped into his chair carefully, holding an mint chocolate ice cream cone in one hand. "Hi Sheik," he said, between licks.

"You're almost late. Where were you?" asked Sheik.

"Mmm," Pit said, tongue slipping back into his mouth. "Ice cream."

"… Of course."

"Yo, Pit," said Snake, leaning over the back of the chair beside Sheik. "I thought you got targeted by Lucario, too. How come you're not up there for revenge?"

Pit paused his licking long enough to answer. "I'm not angry at Lucario, so there's no point in me fighting. I'm actually sorta grateful to him, actually. I didn't know that somebody got mint chocolate ice cream again."

Pretty much everyone nearby: _Nobody wanted you to know because they knew exactly what would happen…_

"Yeah, but Ike said he forgave Lucario, too," said Sheik, who'd been wondering the same thing. "How come he's up there, then?"

"Umm. Master Hand asked me if I wanted to, and I said no," Pit shrugged. "Guess Ike said yes."

_More like you're just on really good terms with him… _thought Sheik; she knew Ike hadn't gotten asked. _Not that it makes your punishments any lighter, I guess,_ she amended, remembering Pit's last punishment.

"Hey, I think they're starting!" shouted Fox.

* * *

The four Smashers participating all stood on the moving platform below the stage. Fully prepared and in costume, they stood at the four corners of the platform, waiting for it to move up to the stage so they could start.

Out of the blue, Ike sighed, as if finally accepting something. "Man, I didn't even want this fight. This should really be between you three," he said to the others. Then he grinned ferociously as he lofted his blade. "But, if I'm going to get put into a fight, might as well give it my all, huh?" he growled.

Lucario blinked in surprise at the bloodlust Ike was emitting, and the other two boys smiled. Link brought out his sword, and then with a grin, pulled out a bomb, as well. "Don't get careless now, Ike."

Ike barked a short, powerful laugh. "Don't go worrying about me, Link. Worry for yourself."

Lucario looked over to Marth's corner, where the prince stood, silent. Lucario could feel a sharp sense of focus predominant in the prince's emotions. _Was it a good show?_ asked Lucario. Marth didn't speak, but the colour of his emotions changed slightly, and Lucario nodded. _I see. I apologize. _

Marth nimbly unsheathed his sword, accepting the apology with a regal nod. The sense of razor focus had returned; the prince had appeared in full force. He always did whenever Marth wore his sister's tiara.

The platform abruptly groaned, then lurched as it started to rise.

"Here we go."

* * *

"Hello, and welcome back to the Super Smash Brothers Brawl Stadium!" A voice rang out from all the speakers stadium, and the announcer could be seen in the soundbooth that hung above the stage, attached to the ceiling. Below him were screens that either usually showcased advertisements (disabled when the stadium wasn't in use) or the Smashers onstage, but right now, it provided a close-up of the announcer's face. Right now, it was a jolly, yellow-haired one with a broad grin.

("As usual, Master Hand looks like he's enjoying himself way too much," muttered Snake sourly. Samus, on the other hand, mused, "He's probably practicing his announcer skills.")

"Today's match is going to be a big one. We have a four-way grudge match between Lucario, Ike, Link, and Marth, for past pranks and 'plaints!"

("He's saying the wrong things, but at the same time, he technically hasn't lied yet..." commented Captain Falcon. "Alliteration? Really?" said Falco at the same time. On the other hand, Red wondered aloud, "What's a 'plaint?")

"I'll cut my rambling short so we can get to the best part of the show: the fight! Here are our Smashers! Ike! Link! Lucario! Marth!" As he named each fighter, a spotlight illuminated their respective corners. "AND!"

Link grinned, and lit the fuse on his bomb.

"THREE!"

Marth stabbed his sword into the sky, before bringing it down again, point nearly touching the ground.

"TWO!"

Ike crouched in a ready position, giant sword slung over his back to rest on his shoulder.

"ONE!"

Lucario began to collect aura around his hands, the air around him turning a shimmering blue.

"GO!"

At the word "GO!" the fight began, and the figures onstage seemed to blur.

* * *

They were off to an explosive start, literally. Link had dropped a bomb at his feet right at the beginning to act as a smokescreen. It would only work for a moment, and only against Marth and Ike, but hopefully it would be enough. He ran straight for Lucario, who had sensed his intentions and was rushing at him in turn, clearly intending to take Link and his projectiles out of the fight.

Somehow, Marth was even faster. Right as Link and Lucario reached each other, Marth appeared from out of nowhere behind Lucario, his sword and Link's sword slashing out simultaneously for the Pokémon from two sides at once.

They were so focused that they almost didn't hear the bloodcurdling yell until it was too late. All three of them were forced to disengage as Ike swung his blade at them, nearly hitting all of them. They rolled away, and Ike continued on towards Link, giant sword already swinging around again in a great arc. Link quickly flung his boomerang to knock the blade off its course, and tried to pull out his bow, but had to parry a second, lightning fast strike with his sword.

Math and Lucario were left alone, the two a short distance apart. Both looked at each other for a moment, before they got up and turned to face each other.

_Well, then_, said Lucario, bringing his arms up in a ready position. Marth smiled slightly, a red slash in his pale skin, as he raised his blade to rest beside his face, pointing up. "_Boku wa makeru wake-ni wa ikanainda_," he said, before rushing at Lucario.

* * *

The sun was setting, the match had ended. Master Hand had disappeared, sending them off with only the explanation "I need to find something for tonight," but the rest of the Smashers were making their way back to the Mansion. The participants of the match, already changed back into normal clothing using the stadium's changerooms, were with them, making a large group even larger as they all walked along the trail, split into several small groups.

The kids led the way running and shouting, followed by a serene Peach who was escorted by Yoshi and the Mario Brothers. Captain Falcon and Sonic were right behind them, arguing, and close to them, the two Kongs could be seen every once in a while as they leapt from tree to tree. Metaknight was talking intently with Fox, trailed by Kirby, Falco, and Olimar. Behind them were Pit and Red, talking strategy about the new Pokémon game, followed by the most of the Pokémon, Pikachu held in Samus' arms as she chatted with Snake. Zelda was talking some spa day with Sheik, while Ike and Link were discussing the match, Marth listening nearby. This left Lucario at the back of the group, the last person except for the group of villains who were, for some reason, rather far behind.

Lucario was looking forward to going back to meditating, and was already going through the list in his head when Marth suddenly spoke from nearby. "Are you busy tomorrow?" he said.

_No more than usual, _replied Lucario. _Why?_

"Then, I want to show you the anime I was watching," Marth said seriously. Then, his eyes took on a glazed look. "It was so good…"

_Hey, hey_, Lucario said, prodding him. _Can you please stop? Your aura has sparkles in it. It looks disgusting._ Marth shook his head, snapping out of his trance, and Lucario sighed in relief. Then, he said, _I'm afraid I may not be able to appreciate the show the way you do. I have tried to watch a television show before, the one that Peach likes, but it was not entertaining to me at all. Perhaps it is because it is a work by and for humans._

"You don't need to be human to enjoy a good story," said Marth simply. Lucario didn't answer. "Besides, all Peach likes is trashy melodrama. This story is really well-done, one of the best, I promise. So then, how about it?"

Lucario hesitated for a moment. _Alright._

Marth smiled.

* * *

They were already back in the Mansion when it happened. Most of the other Smashers had already dispersed into the Mansion, leaving Lucario, the villains, and the older teenagers in the lobby. The two groups were talking amongst themselves when Lucario's eyes suddenly went wide. _What? Impossible_. He stopped his train of thought, and simply broadcasted to the Mansion with all the force he could muster, _HIDE!_

That statement alone was strong enough to make some of the Smashers obey him automatically, even as their minds were registering his shout. Unfortunately, the ones who most needed to obey were unaffected.

"What's the meaning of this?" Ganondorf shouted gruffly, head pounding in pain from the force of the shout.

Lucario couldn't answer; his brain was already racing, thinking ahead, trying to figure out a plan; he had no space to go backwards in his train of thought. He had started to race off when Marth shouted, "Lucario? What's going on?" That almost made him pause, but he couldn't pause, not if they were to find a solution. He couldn't send a word, for lack of space left to think, so instead, he sent an emotion, one that was relevant. _Trust._

Marth hesitated at that, then cursed. "Let's go!" he yelled, and was almost at one of the side doors when he realized that the villains hadn't moved yet. "Shit!" he cursed under his breath, then yelled, "Guys! Help me!" The other teenagers looked at him, and nodded, and they each went to a villain and started wrestling them to the doors, amid a chorus of loud protests. The villains, predictably, resisted; none of them were going anywhere quickly.

Thankfully, that was when R.O.B. and Olimar intervened. With a crackle of the speakers that R.O.B. wirelessly connected to, Olimar's voice spoke over the P.A. "H-hey, is this working? If-f you can hear me, please listen. The Pikmin have seen seven humans with guns coming up the path. R-repeat, the Pikmin have seen humans coming, and fast."

"Oh…" The sound slipped, unbidden, from Sheik's lips. Then the ramifications hit them. They couldn't kill them. They probably couldn't redirect them, if they were so close. And, if they had guns, they had no easy way of knocking them all out without giving away their secret. They scattered.

Marth was nearly out of the lobby when Lucario spoke to him. _Stop, Marth, Sheik, Zelda. Stay. We can't show them an empty Mansion. They'll search it and find the others. The rest of us, hide anything not human! _The Pokémon himself came sliding down the banister a moment later, two caps in hand. They were Mario's and Luigi's, turned inside out. He placed them on Sheik and Zelda's heads, then looked up as the sound of car doors slamming drifted into the Mansion. _No time!_ He disappeared right as the large double doors to the Mansion were kicked open.

A group of seven humans came in, looking frantic, one of them bleeding. As soon as they spotted Marth, Sheik, and Zelda, some of them started shouting and pointing their guns at them. It didn't take a lot of acting for the three Smashers to act terrified and cower from the guns.

A few minutes later, a blond-haired man, their apparent leader, began to sort things out. He sent the injured man outside to watch guard over the path, then turned to the Smashers and began to ask questions.

"Who else is in here?" he asked Marth curtly.

"Nobody," replied Marth defiantly. "Who the heck are you guys? What are you doing here?"

The blond-haired man looked at him for a bit. "Blue hair, huh?" Then he abruptly hit Marth across the face with the butt of his gun. "I hate guys like you. Isn't it obvious? We're robbing you. Oi, June," he called to the only woman in the group. "You got rope, right?"

The woman addressed replied bluntly, "Yeah."

"Get some and tie this bastard up." Marth growled, but stopped resisting when Lucario informed him: _Ike and Link are in the air vents, and Snake and Samus are on their way. If anything too bad happens, they'll intervene. We can hear everything they say as well, so don't worry. We'll figure a way out of this._

"Alright, let's try this again," said the blond-haired man, when a tall man with a scar running down his face spoke up.

"Shouldn't you check them for cellphones first?"

_Uh-oh_. Marth paled. The names of the other Smashers were in his contact list, along with photos back from when they'd first met, when everybody had been in full costume. That could be a problem.

The blond man looked at him and scowled. "Right. Kid, you search them."

The boy addressed jumped, dark blond hair bouncing slightly. "M-me?" he asked, looking uncertain.

"Sheesh, you're useless," scowled the blond-haired man. "John, you're responsible for him, you do it."

The bald man searched Marth's pockets…

And came up empty. Similar searches on the girls revealed nothing. "They've got none."

_What the-?_ Marth thought. Then, he realized what had happened. Lucario must've taken them somehow; Marth didn't even know when it had happened, they'd been so rushed. _Damn, Lucario, you're pretty efficient._

"Alright, girly," said the blond-haired man, squatting in front of Sheik. "Who else is in here?"

Already knowing that he wouldn't believe her if she said nobody, Sheik hesitated before answering, "Just my brother. My parents are out for dinner."

"Really?" laughed the blond-haired man. "And who's this? She definitely looks like she could be your sister, but don't tell me this creep is your brother, too?"

Sheik hesitated, but Zelda did not. She stepped in front of Sheik and said, "He's my boyfriend."

(Somewhere close by, Link spluttered very quietly.)

"Ah, I see," said the blond-haired man, thoroughly amused. "You wanted to get it on with him? Sorry to ruin your day, hun, but just between you and me, I think you can do better."

"We're wasting time," said a long-haired man impatiently. "Let's get what we need and scram."

"Fine, fine," said the blond-haired man. "Where's your brother?" he asked Sheik.

She hesitated a moment before answering. "He's in the lounge."

"Alright," said the blond-haired man. "You three," he said, pointing at the scarred man, the long-haired man, and the bald man. "Go get the brother. We'll wait here."

* * *

By this point, Lucario had joined Olimar and R.O.B. in the kitchen. He was trying to monitor the situation as much as possible and relay instructions, since he was the only way they could communicate with the Smashers who were trapped. R.O.B. was playing the conversation from the lobby in real-time (which had really creepy ramifications, but Lucario couldn't focus on that right now). As soon as he heard how the situation had escalated, he spread his focus and tried to sense everybody's auras.

_No sense of accomplishment from anyone. We need more time to cover up everything important and hide, _thought Lucario. He sent a message to Pit. _Pit, I'm sorry to ask this, but we need you to buy us some time and play along with Zelda. You'll probably become a hostage as Zelda's brother, but we won't be able to cover everything up otherwise. _

Pit nodded, even though he knew that Lucario couldn't hear him, and started changing. _Thank you, _said Lucario, who had sensed Pit's determination. _They're going down the main hallway right now. I'll tell you what you need to know_.

* * *

They were nearly at the lounge when Pit stepped out of the lounge door. Even tied up and frightened as she was, Sheik instantly had the urge to chuckle.

Pit wore an orange and blue striped shirt over a white undershirt with a pair of jean shorts and a pair of white sneakers. His unruly hair had been combed straight, most of it lying underneath an Angry Birds baseball cap. There was no sign of his angel wings. Instead, he wore a black backpack, and in his hand, he held a Nintendo DS. Combined with the almost devilishly cute, clueless expression on his face, he looked completely like a normal teenage school-kid caught while gaming.

"What? Who are you guys?" Pit asked in an innocent voice, as if he hadn't noticed the guns. "What are you doing with my sisters? Why is Shawn tied up?"

At this improvised name, Sheik nearly burst out into laughter. "Calm down, kid. Come with us, and we won't hurt your sisters," said the bald one. "Come on, talk to him, will you?"

Meanwhile, Pit had taken a step back. "You guys have guns!" he squeaked, his voice half an octave higher. The corner of Marth's mouth twitched.

"Calm down, P-Patrick," said Zelda reassuringly. Sheik buried her face in her shoulder to muffle her voice, hoping the men would think she was sobbing. "We're completely fine, honey. These men just need a place to stay for a little bit, but they weren't sure we would let them. They'll be going soon." Her voice hardened just a tad at the last statement, but none of them seemed to have noticed.

"O-ok," said Pit uncertainly. As he walked forward to shyly take Zelda's hand ("What the heck is the twerp doing?" hissed Link, causing Ike to turn to him and cover his mouth), he looked around and asked, "Are you guys gonna tie me up?"

"No, buddy," said the bald man, obviously charmed. "We just need to know if anybody else is here."

Pit put a finger to his lips and looked up as he pretended to think. "Nobody."

"Where's Mom and Dad?"

"They went out for dinner. The maid went home, too."

The man with long hair looked suspicious, but with their stories matching together, he had no choice but to accept the statement. They started to go back to the lobby to join the others. Sheik couldn't help but lean over and mutter to Pit, "For an angel, you're too good at acting, you slick twerp."

The corner of Pit's mouth crooked up a bit, but it disappeared the next moment when the butt of a gun hit Sheik in the back. "Oi, no talking," said the long-haired man. "We need to think here."

The blow hadn't really hurt Sheik, but she could see that Marth was trembling in his bonds, and she could almost feel Link and Ike's rage from their hiding spot in the air vents. Violence seemed about to break out when Zelda stepped forward, placing a hand on Marth's shoulder. "Calm down, Shawn," she said loudly. "They have guns, remember." A reminder that they needed to be careful, for the others.

"The little missy is smart," said the long-haired man, smirking. "You should listen to her more often."

"Oi, relax, Rob," said the bald man. "You'll be fine," he reassured the others.

They returned to the lobby, where the robbers split into three pairs. Two pairs would search the Mansion for whatever they wanted to take, while the scarred man and the boy would guard the hostages. They were made to sit in the corner, the boy standing guard while the scarred man sat a nearby dresser, relaxing.

_This is a pretty good opportunity to take them out,_ thought Marth, hoping Lucario was thinking the same thing. _Only problem is the two in here; if only the kid weren't so terrified, I wouldn't be so worried about getting shot._ He was in the middle of trying to come up with a battle plan when he was distracted by the boy, who came up to him.

"S-Sorry," he said, looking miserable, pistol held close to his chest. Marth looked away. What was he supposed to say? I forgive you?

"Y-you," said the boy again. Marth looked up and the boy bit his lip and looked away, before looking back again at Marth. Green eyes met blue, as he said, "Y-you're Marth, right?"

Marth froze. _Fuck._

**A/N: Cliffhanger!**

**I'm a terrible person for doing this.**

**This was a really long chapter to be part of a two chapter arc… I think I spent too long on the fight with the audience conversations...**

**Umm, as usual, some stuff about your main characters, some new stuff about fringe characters, and Lucario gets the limelight! Pretty convenient situation I thought up, for him to be so useful, huh? o.O**

**On the other hand, you genre savvy people will probably realize which of these new people is going to become the OC. Of course, I could completely screw with your expectations by making them all important, but I really don't want to do that...**

**The events of this chapter are all related to Master Hand, btw. He's quite the troll sometimes. **

**Finally, in the fight, what Marth says in Japanese is translated as "There's no way I can lose" on Smashwiki, so there you have it. I'm not saying he won the match, it has a slightly different meaning here; more like even if he loses, he can still become friends with Lucario, so in the end, he doesn't lose. It's one of his better skills, coming from his charisma, I guess :)**


	6. Apologies, Between Friends pt 2

**A/N: Finals are done \(^.^)/**

**Gurlyoubad 13- I am so sorry; I'm a terrible person for not updating this on schedule.**

**I don't know why, I had a lot of trouble focusing on this chapter, but that shouldn't have delayed me for a full week. I think I'm just busier now even more than I was before -.-**

**After this, I'll go back temporarily to one-shots. I need to organize my thoughts, or else everything will start falling apart during any arc I write. I've sort of messed this one up a little bit, but it's okay; it's not that major :)**

**I also realized just now that I had a really confusing typo in the last chapter. Please, please, if you ever notice something like that, send me a PM or something, don't just let it lie there T_T**

**In any case, enjoy!**

**Disclaimer: I do not own SSBB, its characters, stages, items, etc. **

"I saw an angel, of that, I'm sure," Master Hand sang to himself happily as he left the store. Held at his side was a paper shopping bag, containing a large, dark bottle. His other hand had already pulled his keys out of his pocket, and he was walking towards his car when he noticed the red and blue flashing lights out of the corner of his eye. Curious, he turned his head to look and saw a pair of police cars in front of a bank.

_A bank robbery?_ he wondered. He considered going over to take a look, but reconsidered when he looked at his watch. _I should be getting back, or I'll be late,_ he thought.

He got in his car, placed the shopping back on the passenger seat beside him, and started to drive back towards the Mansion.

* * *

Marth immediately tried to hide his reaction by going limp. He couldn't help but glance at the others, a little bit away from them. No help from there; they were too far to have heard the half-whispered question. He considered denying the allegation, but one look at the boy convinced him that it wasn't going to work.

"I knew it was you!" the boy said excitedly, voice still on the quiet side. A wide smile on his face, his large green eyes held a mixture of wonder, joy, and maybe a little bit of hero worship. "I knew some of the games had to be real!"

Marth tried to come up with another explanation on the spot, but came up empty. _Damnit_, he sighed inwardly. "Yeah, it's me," he admitted with a weak smile. "You know about me?" he asked lamely, more to buy time to think than actually asking.

"Yeah, I've played both your games," the boy replied, almost cheerfully. "You look exactly like how you do in the games. Did you actually kill a dragon, or did they make that up?"

"Um, yeah," Marth mumbled in response, not really paying attention as he tried to think of a solution. Then- "Wait, what? They said I killed a dragon?"

"Mmhmm," nodded the boy, eyes dancing. "A really big and evil one from a hundred years back, who got beat by your ancestor using your sword and a magic shield."

"Jeez," Marth sighed. "There wasn't anything like that. A lot of battles, for sure, but it was always between us humans."

The boy looked a little disappointed now. "So, no final fight against a revived Medeus?"

"Medeus?" Marth's eyebrows raised; he was momentarily confused. "Oh, you mean the legendary dragon. No, no revived Medeus. It was a horrible war," Marth paused, with a wince as some memories flashed by, "but no age-old evils, just normal present-day evils."

"I guess it's the same over there, huh? Once you're gone, you don't come back," the boy said seriously and maybe a little sadly. "How did you come here, by the way?" he asked, perking up slightly.

"Ah, that's…" Marth trailed off uncertainly; this was a dangerous topic. He glanced at the others, and saw that Zelda had come closer. All three of them were wearing worried expressions; Lucario must've told them something had happened. "I'm not really sure myself," he said, dodging the question. "Look, um- what's your name?"

"Ven."

"Ven, can you do me a favour?" Marth paused, and Ven nodded. "Please don't tell anybody my real identity."

Ven frowned, but nodded after a moment. "I promise." Marth sighed in relief. The boy glanced to the side, where Zelda was standing nearby. He cupped a hand in front of his mouth, gesturing for Marth to listen. Marth, surprised, leaned his, tilting his head.

"I think she heard," Ven whispered in his ear. "Does that include her? Or does she know who you are? I've never seen her before in a game with-"

He stopped abruptly, and turned, slowly, to stare at Zelda. Marth groaned inwardly, as if he already knew what was coming next. _You've got to be kidding me._

* * *

Deep in the Mansion, one of the pairs that had gone out were currently searching the kitchen for a first-aid kit. The blond-haired one, finding nothing, stood up abruptly and smacked his head on a low cabinet. He swore.

"Found one?" asked the bald one.

"No," said the blond-haired one, shortly.

He went back to searching. The bald one, on the other hand, looked at him for a moment, then said, with growing annoyance, "You're pissed at me. Don't go bottling it up on me, out with it."

The blond-haired one went still, then leaned back, rubbing at his face. "A kid, John, a goddamn kid. Why?"

"Why a _bank robbery_?" The bald one's knuckles went white as he tightened his grip on his gun. "We've never done something so ridiculous."

The blond-haired one swore angrily. "Does that matter? There is _nothing_ we've ever done that a kid should get involved in."

The bald one spoke with exaggerated patience. "You told us to pack clothes for a couple days. I thought this was another one of those trips the six of us went on before. He wouldn't have needed to get involved."

The blond-haired one barked a laugh. "Damnit, John, those jobs have been over for a year now. The clothes were so you guys could hide out for a couple days while I showed my face at work and the ruckus died down. Why would you need to bring him, anyways?"

The bald one said flatly, "Don't even ask. You know the answer."

The blond-haired one paused then, anger mostly dissipating. "Ah." A pause, then- "Your wife?"

"Yeah."

"I see." The blond-haired one sighed, and then clicked his tongue in frustration. "I guess it's my fault for not telling you, huh?"

"Yeah, well… My fault for showing up late, otherwise I could've sent him back," the bald one said, rubbing the back of his head. A wry smile came onto his face, and he added, "We're kinda screwed now, huh?"

The blond-haired man looked away, then looked back. "I'll figure something out."

The bald one smiled. The two of them bumped fists, and then went back to searching.

* * *

The other pair that had been sent out weren't searching at all. Instead, the women stood against the wall, leaning, while the long-haired man talked to her.

"Moe's completely screwed," he was saying. "He left so much blood at the scene, they'll track him down with DNA testing. Plus, he's the one who messed that whole thing up anyways, letting the teller trigger the alarm."

"What are you saying?" asked the woman. "Get to the point."

"Dave's insane if he thinks the mansion residents are gonna let us go without a hitch. Moe's dead weight, but the only one of us he's really associated to is Dan. I say, cut them off, and get rid of the witnesses. Make it look like a murder suicide. They won't have a link, and we'll be that much harder to track down." He hoisted his gun, and smiled cruelly. "You in?"

"Why not just cut them all off? That way, we won't have to share the money. Besides, Dave is dead weight as well. We should've kept our masks on, even if it was uncomfortable," pointed out the woman.

The long-haired man blinked in surprise, then grinned. "I like the way you think."

* * *

The boy reached out a hand to touch the side of Zelda's head. She instinctively slapped his arm away, but his finger caught in her hat, tearing it off, revealing her ears. The boy gasped in wonder.

The scarred man noticed.

"What're you doing, kid?" he said gruffly. "You're supposed to be guar- Oh?" he interrupted himself as he noticed Zelda's ears.

_Damnit,_ thought Marth.

Then, the night outside was broken by the sound of a hundred thunderclaps and a large, all-encompassing white light.

* * *

"What the hell?" exclaimed the bald man. The blond-haired man swore furiously and rushed to the nearest window.

* * *

The woman and the long-haired man both stared out the window, mouths open wide.

* * *

Master Hand was about to turn onto the road that led straight to the Mansion when the explosion of sound and light hit him. He jerked the wheel awkwardly in surprise, nearly veering off the road. He brought the car back under control, and came to a stop by the side of the road. He sat there for a few seconds, before opening his door and getting out to look behind him.

The explosion had been completely spent, but Master Hand could see trails of light slowly dropping in the sky. They had all obviously from the same spot. In fact…

"Why does it look like somebody just set off all the fireworks in the stadium?" he muttered to himself. "Oh, of course, because somebody did! God, I can't leave these people alone, ever."

He glanced at his watch automatically, then grimaced. Duty called; he'd have to figure out a way to atone for being late. He got in the car and made a U-turn, going back the way he came, back towards the stadium.

* * *

"Gah," growled Bowser. "We spent so long setting that up. This feels like such a waste."

"A pity, a pity," sighed Ganondorf from where he was lazing in his seat. "We could've ruined next exhibition day. Humiliating Master Hand and getting out of work, all in one."

"You better pay me for this," growled Wario angrily. He shook a fist angrily in Lucario's direction.

Olimar stepped forward as if to say something, but Lucario put a hand on his shoulder and shook his head. Instead, he piped up, "Ignore them, Lucario. It was good timing."

_We'll talk about that later_, said Lucario to the villains. Now that he had taken a short rest, he could refocus again. He tuned them out and spread his awareness once again to see what would happen.

* * *

The curly-haired man was dozing when it happened. He jumped up with a start at the sound, and stared, wide-eyed, at the huge burst of light in the sky. He jumped back a few steps…

And slipped on a banana, falling backwards. His head struck the ground, hard, and his vision went blurry, so it was entirely possible that he was hallucinating when he saw a giant pink hand descend over his mouth. A moment later, he fell unconscious.

* * *

Distracted by the lights, the long-haired man didn't notice that somebody was sneaking up on him until it was too late.

"Agh!" he grunted, as he hunched over, then fell to the floor.

The woman spun around. "Rob!" she shouted. She saw him on the ground, with a blond-haired woman next to him, a taser in her hand. Full of rage, she raised her gun, clearly intending to use it, but a pair of hands wrapped around her head and neck, and jerked, hard.

"Snake," Samus said, admonishing, as the woman seemed to turn to jelly.

"Yeah, yeah," Snake said, putting her down gently. "She's still alive, but she'll wake up with major whiplash."

Samus shrugged, as if to say _not my problem._

* * *

The bald man was right on the heels of the blond-haired man, and was about to follow him around a corner when he heard a muffled yell, and the air in front of him seemed to streak blue, brown, and grey, simultaneously. "Dave!" he shouted as he rounded the corner, only to see that he had, impossibly, disappeared. _What the hell?_

A tap at his shoulder caused him to turn around. He was greeted by the sight of a short blond woman wearing a pink dress with white gloves. "Hi," she said, and he closed his eyes then opened them again, as if to verify that what he was seeing was real. After all, how could she possibly have snuck up on him in a giant, poofy dress like that?

When he reopened his eyes, all he saw was black, right before he got clunked in the face by a frying pan.

* * *

"What the-" said the boy, head whipping around at the sound. The scarred man started to follow suit, then turned back, as if he knew, somehow, what was coming next.

The doors at the top of the stairs slammed open, and Ike came running out, deku nut in hand. He threw it a little above the scarred man, who swore and turned his gun towards Ike. A cardboard box suddenly dropped down onto the man, trapping him inside with the deku nut; above, Link pumped his fist in triumph. A huge flash, muted by the cardboard box, stunned the scarred man, sending him to the ground while the others nearby were unaffected.

Throughout this whole sequence, the boy just stood there in shock, unmoving as he watched events fold before his eyes. When Ike turned towards him, he jumped with fright, and started backing away, raising his gun with a shaking hand. Then, his eyes rolled up in his head, and he slumped to the ground. Behind him was Zelda, pale and drawn. She slowly collapsed to one knee, index finger of her right hand tracking the base of the boy's neck. All three triangles of the faintly imprinted triforce on the back of her hand were glowing.

"A sleep spell?" he asked.

Zelda didn't respond, but Link, leaping down nimbly from the air vent above, did. "Yeah. It's probably her safest spell to use on somebody else, other than healing. It's one of her most difficult spells, for some reason. She has to maintain it constantly, and she can only use it on one person at a time. It also doesn't work against most animals, and some people, as well. It's a hassle," he concluded, with a loud, world-weary sigh.

"I get it," said Marth, a little annoyed. "Wanna untie me now?"

Link laughed and went over to Marth, hands seeking out the knot in the small of Marth's back. While he was doing so, Marth looked at the others.

"I'm guessing, from your expression and what Lucario told us, that the kid guessed who we were?" Sheik asked him. When Marth nodded, she shook her head glumly. "That's a problem."

* * *

Twenty minutes had passed. They had moved all of the intruders into a basement room, where right now, Jigglypuff was singing gently, cuddled protectively by a now-asleep Red. Lucario was resting in his room, exhausted, but most of the other Smashers were in the lobby. They were in the middle of discussing what to do.

"Honestly, can't we just hand them over to the police?" Samus suggested. "It's consistent with this world's laws, and we won't have to be bothered by them anymore."

"We don't know what they've seen or what they know," growled Wolf. "Safest for us would be to get rid of them."

"Hey, no killing, remember?" said Falco sharply, smacking Wolf on the head.

"You little…"

Zelda sighed, and detached herself from the main group of Smashers, walking over to the stairs where the other teenagers sat. "We're going around in circles," said Zelda.

"They're not even addressing the real problem," noted Sheik sourly. "We need to figure out how to deal with the kid who recognized us. The rest of them aren't important. Any ideas?"

None of them answered for a few long moments. Ganondorf, who had walked by, shook his head at them. "The simplest answer is to kill him," he said gruffly.

"Go away," said Zelda curtly. She raised her right hand, and the imprinted triforce began to glow.

Ganondorf looked at her for a long moment, then scoffed and shook his head. He walked over to join the others.

"He's right, you know," said Ike abruptly.

The others all turned to look at him.

"Hey, hey, don't even joke about that," said Link.

"I don't like it either, but the easiest way _would_ be to get rid of him. We can't let the secret out, remember?"

"Ike, we shouldn't be killing people to solve a problem!" Zelda said to him sharply.

"I can leave, you know." Marth spoke up for the first time, looking up at the others. It hurt to say the words, but he continued onwards anyways. "If I'm not here, then he can't find me, right?"

Sheik looked at him for a long moment, and then rolled her eyes at him. "My god, I thought you were supposed to be smart under pressure," she said with a smile.

"Don't even try to pull that one on us," added Link. "The problem won't go away just 'cause you do, and besides, we wouldn't let you go."

"Ah… Idiots," said Marth, but he was smiling. The rest of them smiled, as well, but those faded soon enough.

"That still leaves us with our old problem," said Ike. "Do we, well… kill him?"

_Can I?_ thought Marth, as the others began to talk. _If the secret gets out, we all get in trouble, but if I kill him, only I get in trouble. That's not a bad exchange, right? It's something I would've done a year ago, right? _He tried to imagine the deed, but couldn't. _Or, maybe not. I can't kill a kid whose crime is recognizing me. Besides, one rule's already been broken. Why break another?_

Having come to a resolution, Marth started paying attention to the conversation again in time to hear Pit say, "Why don't we just keep him here?"

Silence greeted his statement, and then the others began to talk.

"I dunno about that," said Link, scratching his head. "It feels too much like we're jailing him."

"We'd have to keep watch on him, make sure he doesn't try to escape," said Ike, frowning. "That's a major hassle."

"Guys, you weren't here like we were," said Pit. "You never know. What if he wants to stay?"

The rest of them considered this possibility. Zelda was nodding slowly. "He seemed pretty happy when he was talking with you, Marth. It's not that far-fetched an idea, I think."

Marth nodded, thinking. "He was pretty straightforward and honest. He took his promise not to tell anybody seriously, too, I could tell."

"An idea for the others?" suggested Sheik.

"And Master Hand," noted Ike. "He'll probably make the decision in the end."

* * *

The night had gone by. The sun was shining brightly, and the sky empty of clouds, as if last night's rain had melted them away. The intruders were gone now; they had been found in the morning, tied up and unconscious, outside of the nearby town's police station. Master Hand had come back, nice white suit covered in soot, heard about the situation from R.O.B., and dealt with the villains appropriately for their prank in the stadium (but that's a story for another time).

In any case, it was somewhat early in the morning. The other Smashers were eating breakfast, and as usual, they were being fairly rowdy. Their shouts drifted up all the way from the dining hall on the first floor to a set of unusually large fourth floor windows. The noise, in the end, was what woke Ven up.

He woke up slowly, wrapped in a warm, cottony comfort that just made you want to continue sleeping. He opened one eye first, and then the other eye, blinking owlishly. He yawned widely, hands barely extending beyond the too-large pyjamas he was wearing- then sat bolt upright.

_Where am I?_

"Ah, you're awake," said a voice to his left. Ven turned to see a young, tired-looking blond man sitting at a desk nearby, head turned to look at him, pen in hand.

"Who are you?" Ven asked, a little groggily. "Where am I?"

"My name is Master Hand," he replied, and Ven blinked in surprise. "You're at the same Mansion you were last night." He paused a moment, then added, "Remember?"

"Ah." The memories that he hoped were just a dream started to come flooding back. "Ah, ah." His face scrunched up, and he wrapped his arms around his knees, pulling them close.

"Hey, don't worry," said Master Hand, getting up from his seat and patting the boy awkwardly on the back. "It's over now. Have some breakfast, won't you? This tray's for you." He gestured at a tray on a side table.

Still frowning, Ven looked up at him. Then, his stomach growled. His face went red, and he ducked his head and mumbled, "Thanks." He climbed out of bed and took the tray, mouth opening slightly at the food on it. He brought it back to the bed and ate with small, quick bites.

Master Hand watched for a few moments, then took his chair and turned it to face Ven. He sat down, and said, "If you have any questions, feel free to ask me right now." He had to repeat himself once; the first time, the boy, chewing slowly, had a blissful expression on his face, and Master Hand wasn't sure he'd heard anything at all. The boy nodded in acknowledgement the second time.

"Where are the others?" he asked, between bites.

"They're safe," replied Master Hand. "Well, fairly safe. They're at the police station right now."

"Mmm, right," said Ven, expression darkening a little. He took another bite, then swallowed before asking, "Why am I not with them? I… I should be with the others."

"We know, but you're a bit of a special case," said Master Hand. "You see, you're the only one of them who recognized who we are."

"Mmhmm," Ven nodded empathetically. He hesitated before asking, "Last night, when I fell unconscious; the others attacked us?"

"Yes," said Master Hand. Strangely enough, the boy looked almost triumphant as he heard the answer. That faded quickly, however.

"What happens now?"

Master Hand looked at him for a long moment. "We have a problem. See, we don't want anybody to know that we're here. You've sort of ruined that for us."

Ven slowly went pale. "I would never tell anybody, I promise."

"I can't trust that promise."

The boy went even whiter. Master Hand stood up, and said to him, "Don't be so afraid. I haven't decided yet what to do. Even if I had, I wouldn't do it now; I'm not so heartless that I won't let people say their goodbyes."

The boy looked down, and put down his spoon, as if he were no longer hungry. Master Hand had brought his chair back to his desk and had already picked up his pen when he asked, almost as an afterthought, "Oh yes, by the way. What is your name, anyways?"

"Ven," said the boy quietly. "Ven Undskyld."

Master Hand's head whipped around to look at him. An expulsion of air came out from his mouth, and then, he started to laugh. Ven looked at him as if he were crazy, which, under the circumstances, was very reasonable.

When Master Hand had stopped laughing, he said, with a wide smile on his face, "Ven, huh? You know, part of the punishment for a crime is community service. How would you like to work here?"

Ven looked up, disbelieving his own ears. His face changed slowly to a wide grin, and he jumped off the bed. "You mean it?"

"Yeah."

"I would love to! It's what I want to do most in the world!"

"Well then," said Master Hand with a smile. "Your clothes are on the dresser over there. After breakfast, get dressed and go downstairs to find R.O.B., the robot. Tell him what we talked about, and that I sent you to him. He'll keep you occupied for a while."

The boy nodded in assent. He finished the last few bites in a hurry, then grabbed his clothing. Before he left, though, he gave a surprised Master Hand a hug. "Thank you," he said, voice muffled slightly. Then he ran over, a huge smile still present on his face.

Master Hand was left looking at the door to the room, a strange look on his face. "Ven… Undskyld, huh?" he said. He scoffed. "You still have the worst ways of treating people, you know?" he said aloud, as if speaking to the air.

Unconsciously rubbing his eyes- it had been a long night- he picked up a shopping bag from where he left it, last night, by the desk. He pulled its contents out of the bag, hefting a large, dark bottle. With his fingers curled tightly around the spout, he went downstairs, calling greetings to the Smashers that he passed by.

Once in the basement, he went to one of the permanently locked rooms, and entered the passcode. He walked forwards into what could be called a wine cellar, save that every slot for a bottle was labeled with a number. Many bottles, most of them (and the most recent of them) unopened, could be seen in slots of a number lower than 2011. He placed this new bottle into the 2012 slot, and then left the room, but not before giving the bottle a second glance.

**A/N: Aha! So those villains **_**were**_** plotting something after all! Zelda is always right!**

**Lots of little details I couldn't put in this time. You might be wondering, if the Smashers are hiding from the rest of the world, why do they live in a huge Mansion? Well, according to Master Hand, "Only those who need to come here can come here." That's all I'll say about that.**

**Lots of other mystery too, but I can't spoil.**

**About those very short, almost too short, chunks of action: see, normally, I would've enjoyed messing around with side characters (the same way Guy Gavriel Kay tends to do in his books). It's a good exercise, making up backstory/personalities that are completely plot-irrelevant, but are amusing. Unfortunately, I don't have the space/patience so all you get is the bare bones of characterization for these people. T_T**

**Also, I realize that Marth has probably been the _most_ changed Fire Emblem character in terms of visual design over his different games and remakes. I'm just poking a little fun at that in my own way right at the beginning :3**

**Finally, please review. You guys are a large part of what keeps me going, and I would love to be able to improve my writing, as well. :)**


	7. Christmas Reminiscence

**A/N: Man, looking back at last chapter, the end part was really not what I'd envisioned it to be. I forgot at least two really important pieces of information that I'll have to make do without now. I'm a bad writer -.-**

**I'm also bad with releases (been said before…). I meant to release something for Christmas **_**on**_** Christmas Day, but er, schedule didn't work out. My fault; should have expected that if **_**I **_**didn't have plans on Christmas, my parents would… So, hope you guys had a wonderful Christmas and even better Boxing Day sales. **

**Anyhow… back to standard oneshots (sort of). This one's shorter than most. There's entirely too much Ven in this one, but dwai, his role will have less of an emphasis over time; the novelty of having him hasn't worn off yet, is all. I don't intend for side characters to take up the stage, you know? In any case, enjoy!**

**Disclaimer: I do not own any of these people except for Ven. **

**P.S. This Ven is not an expy of the Kingdom Hearts character (although I guess they'd look sort of similar?). This Ven's name comes from a language different from Latin; and why would I call him wind, anyways?**

It was a beautiful spring morning. The sun is shining, the sky is blue, (I need to figure out a new intro...). The Smashers were having breakfast as usual, but this time, something was a little different.

"Good morning!" said Ven cheerfully to Snake, who had grabbed a croissant as he walked by. The boy was frying eggs by the kitchen window, located a few feet behind the tables that were loaded, as always, with breakfast foods.

Snake mumbled a greeting back before continuing on his way. As he left, the kitchen door swung open behind him, coming close to clipping his heel. R.O.B. came out, holding a tray of fresh muffins. He set them down, then began to beep at Ven, as if he were relaying instructions. Ven nodded in acknowledgement, somehow realizing what R.O.B. wanted, and R.O.B. beeped happily before going into a side closet.

At a nearby table, Marth was looking thoughtfully at the boy. "Looks like he's adjusting well, huh?" he commented, before downing the last of his chocolate milk.

"Yeah," said Link, sounding surprisingly, and uncharacteristically, gloomy and sour. "You wouldn't believe it's his first breakfast here."

Marth raised an eyebrow at him. "What's up with you?"

"Nothing," he mumbled, before going on to stare off into space.

"He's convinced the kid was hitting on Zelda, when it was really just Ven being nice," Sheik confided in Marth in a stage whisper.

"No, not- well, maybe," said Link distractedly. "I think I'm just a bad boyfriend. I don't compliment her enough." He sighed, dejected.

"Come on, don't be like that," said Sheik, patting him on the arm. "You're not a bad boyfriend. Zelda's just like that sometimes. Now come on, eat your food already." She leaned towards Marth and whispered in his ear. "It's totally his fault. All Ven said was that she looked pretty, but she pretty much glowed, she was so pleased."

Marth grinned in reply. "Speaking of Zelda," he said, ignoring Link's standard mope session, "Where is she?"

"She's got a team brawl with Peach against Ganondorf and Bowser," said Sheik, poking an unresponsive Link now. "She left early to coordinate her costume with Peach, I think."

"Hey guys," said Ike as he arrived at the table, tray loaded with breakfast meat. Pit had walked into the room with him, but was currently at the breakfast tables picking up food.

"Hey, Ike. Where were you?" asked Sheik as he sat down. She poked Link one final time, a hard, straight jab to his side, causing him to react, finally. He jumped up and yelped.

"What was that for, Sheik?" he asked indignantly.

"Zelda's not here, so I have to be the one reminding you to eat, Link. Come on already, it's good," said Sheik, exasperation clear in her tone.

"Wha-at?" spluttered Link. "What are you even talking about?" Sheik folded her arms and turned to Ike, pointedly ignoring Link. A smile played at her mouth, though. Marth and Ike laughed aloud.

"Umm, gym," said Ike, replying to Sheik's earlier question. "I felt like some early-morning training."

"Oh, cool," said Sheik. "And where have you been?" she asked Pit, who had just arrived.

"I had a brawl against Wario, but I finished early. He gave up after the ninth or so arrow," he explained.

"Attaboy!" said Link approvingly, holding up his hand for a high five. Beside him, Ike groaned. "You're a terrible influence on him, you know?"

Pit smacked Link's hand, then turned towards Ike. "Man, I hate doing it as much as you hate receiving it, but I didn't have a choice. He was gonna fart on me!" Everybody present gagged at the thought, Pit included. "Anyways," he said, sitting down, "What have you guys been talking about?"

"The new kid, and how well he's adjusting," said Marth. "I think all the girls adore him. Am I right?" he asked Sheik.

"Just about," she replied with a grin. "With a face like that, how could we not?"

"He looks more like a girl than Marth does," commented Link, who had finally taken his seat and started eating. He waved his fork around for emphasis as he spoke, nearly swiping Sheik and provoking a pair of loud "Hey!"s. "I gotta admit, though, he makes really good omelettes," he added, before scooping up another piece.

"Yeu, I wath surphised phen I thaw phis face in phe kishun," said Ike around a mouthful of sausage. He swallowed, then continued. "It's a nice break from seeing R.O.B. all the time. We still don't know much about him."

"I can fix that," said Pit brightly. "Hey, Ven," he shouted across the dining hall. "Come over and talk to us!"

The green-eyed boy, who had finished cooking and was now washing the pans, looked uncertainly at R.O.B., who had long since returned with a rag to clean the tables. R.O.B. beeped at him, adding in a few clicks and whirrs. Ven nodded and smiled, and abandoned his pans to join them at the table.

"Hey guys," he said, coming up to their table. "What're you doing?"

"Eating," said Sheik, trying to keep her expression deadpan. After a moment, she let out a breath, shook her head, and smiled. "Ven, right? You had breakfast yet?"

"Yep, I'm Ven. Nice to meet you, Sheik," he said with a smile and a nod. "R.O.B. gave me some of his muffins before I started cooking, and I liked them, so I ate a lot of them." He patted his stomach. "I might not have space at lunch."

"Ah, no wonder R.O.B. was bringing a new batch out," mused Marth, not really paying attention. Then, he looked up sharply as he suddenly registered what Ven had said. "WAIT!" he shouted, causing the rest of the table to jump. "You ate those things?" Ven nodded, a bemused expression on his face, and Marth let out a sound of dismay. "Quick, bring him to the bathroom!" he instructed the others.

"Marth, Marth," said Pit, tugging at Marth's sleeve. "Calm down, Marth. He's fine, see? He ate them a long time ago, but he's fine."

Marth blinked and looked at the boy, who had a very confused expression on his face. "Oh… you're right."

Across the table, Link snickered and hit Marth on the arm. "Drama queen. If you stopped to think for a second, you'd have realized."

"Shut up, elf boy. You want new cat whiskers on your face?" Marth replied, eyebrows drawing together.

"You little- Go watch your cartoons or something." Link and Marth began to argue. Ven looked from one of them to the other, but the rest of the table ignored them, used to their antics by now. "Was I not supposed to eat them?" asked Ven, of nobody in particular.

"Don't worry about it," said Ike. One cheek was full of bacon, so his voice was a little distorted. "They're meant to be eaten. They're pretty disgusting, which is why we avoid them, but they're not _that_ disgusting. Marth's just overreacting cause he's a prince, and he's used to delicious food."

"Oh, I see," said Ven. "I thought they were ok," he mumbled, mostly to himself. He looked around the table, to see Pit staring at him, head propped up by his hands. Ven tilted his head questioningly.

Pit smiled in response, and clarified. "It's the first time I've met somebody else who likes R.O.B.'s first batch of muffins."

"That's quite the achievement," Sheik said to Ven drily from her seat. "Pit's the type who'd eat a plastic bag if somebody told him it was food."

Pit flushed red, and Ike burst into laughter, spraying bits of meat everywhere. "Oh, sorry," he apologized, as Sheik picked a chunk of meat off her shoulder with an expression of disgust. "That was Christmas, right? Man, that was slick of Snake. A plastic bag as a gift because he couldn't be bothered, and then telling Pit it was food?"

Link and Marth, having been knocked out of their argument by Ike, grinned simultaneously.

"Well, he paid for it later on. Master Hand _and_ Lucario both got him the day after, didn't he?" said Link.

"Yeah," confirmed Marth. "It happened right as I came back, remember? Guess Lucario didn't appreciate getting a leash for Christmas."

"Wasn't that originally Samus's gift to Snake?" offered Pit.

"No way," said Ike, starting to laugh again.

"Yeah, Pit's right. I remember Samus got mad at him when she heard about it. He swears his left butt cheek has never been the same," drawled Sheik. "Still, I think the award for cheapest gift goes to Marth."

"Haha, yeah, I still remember," said Ike, chuckling at the memory. "A slip of paper with "One free challenge" written on it in yellow marker. What the hell, Marth."

Marth shrugged, smiling good-naturedly. "Well, I didn't really know Link that well, back then. He was asking for a match, too, so I thought, 'why not?'"

Link was looking at him with a questioning look on his face. "What would you have gotten me if you knew me then as well as you know me now?" he asked.

Marth arched an eyebrow smokily, and smiled. He leant back in his seat, folding his hands behind his head, before answering. "Something from Aren't We Naughty."

The older teenagers laughed out loud, leaving Pit and Ven confused. They looked at each other, then Pit asked, "What's Aren't We Naughty?"

"Don't worry about it," said Ike, waving one hand while he held the other over his mouth. "When you're older."

Pit frowned at being left out of the loop, but the others had already continued on with the conversation.

"I did ask for it, I guess," said Link. "Doesn't stop it from being the tackiest gift I've ever gotten."

"Hey, you don't deserve to call other people tacky," said Sheik.

"Yeah, man," added Ike. "Your gift to Zelda- whew…"

"Wait, what was it, anyways?" asked Marth, looking from one person to another. "I was visiting Shiida on Christmas Day, so I never got to see it."

"It was bad," said Ike, shaking his head. Sheik nodded in agreement with Ike.

"Hold on, what are you talking about?" complained Link. "It was inspired!"

"It was gross," said Pit, making a face. "He gave her a kiss," he told Marth.

"What, like, he kissed her?"

"No." Pit shook his head. "He put mistletoe in a box, then when Zelda opened it, he tossed it into the air and kissed her in front of everyone. Bleh." He stuck his tongue out as Marth began to laugh.

On the other hand, Ven frowned at the story, and seemed to almost draw away from the conversation. Ike noticed. "Don't like mistletoe?" he asked gently.

Ven shook his head. "Not really. I'm allergic to them."

"Huh. I've never heard of that allergy before." Ike shrugged, and patted Ven on the shoulder. "Don't worry, mistletoe is not one of our decorations. Except for Link, we didn't have any last year, so we probably won't this year," Ike said reassuringly. "Come Christmas Day, you'll still be healthy as a horse. So, how about you? How are your Christmases?"

Ven looked up and put a finger on his lip as he thought. "They were really fun," he said, finally. "My sister would buy a huge, delicious frozen pizza. Some of our friends would come, and we'd all chomp up pizza before watching a movie together. It was nice." He smiled, lost in memory.

"Oh, that's nice," said Link awkwardly. Out of the side of his mouth, he whispered to Marth. "Isn't frozen pizza really cheap? Why does he make it sound like gourmet food?"

Marth shrugged in response, eyebrows furrowed. _Dunno_. Meanwhile, Sheik had asked another question. "Did you get any good Christmas presents?"

"Yeah." Ven grinned widely this time as he responded. "I got a new pair of underpants from my brother-in-law, and my sister bought me some really warm socks."

_Underpants… Socks…_ thought Marth. _Ehh?!_ "What about a cellphone, or a DS or something?" he asked incredulously.

Ven put a finger to his lip again as he thought. "Well, I thought about asking for those, but I didn't want them to use up too much money. It's not like I _need_ them, right?"

Marth hit the table with his palms and stood up suddenly. "Alright, that's it," he said decisively. "You are living a deprived childhood. Next Christmas- or actually, your birthday would work too. When's your birthday?"

"February 24," replied Ven uncertainly, a quizzical look on his face.

"… So, next Christmas, we're all buying you nice presents. All in favour?" Marth asked. His own hand shot up immediately, followed soon afterwards, a little more slowly, by Pit's and Ike's.

"Marth's a real spontaneous idiot, huh?" Link said to Sheik, aside.

"I heard that, you know."

"Yeah, he really is," Sheik sighed in response.

"I heard that, too. Get your hands up already, you annoying pricks."

The two of them grinned, and then slowly raised their hands. "All in favour," said Marth solemnly, in a deep voice. Then, he turned to Ven. "So it's decided then."

Ven was smiling broadly, eyes just maybe a little wet. "Thank you," he said to Marth. "Thanks, guys," he said to all of them. "I'll get all of you guys something back, I promise."

"Ahem." Link cleared his throat awkwardly. "Well, that's about eight months away, so let's not worry about that for now. Instead, let's figure out what we're doing after breakfast. I have a plan to prank Ganondorf, but I'll need a few helpers."

"Wait, Link," said Pit, a little uncertainly. "Is this the same prank you were going to pull on Marth when he came back to the Mansion last Christmas?"

"Hold on," said Marth, turning to look at Link. "I hadn't heard about this."

"Umm, yeah," replied Link, choosing to ignore Marth. Ike, Pit, and Sheik all grimaced.

"I'm going to go find Red and uh, play some Pokémon," said Pit, standing up from his seat and heading for the door.

"Wait, hold on," said Link. "Can't you help me do this first?"

"Umm, well…" Pit mumbled, looking down at his feet and scratching his right calf with his left foot. "How do I put this? Link-" Pit hesitated and looked to the side- "You, er, might be a bad influence on me, but… Let's put it this way. I'm not _that_ corrupted, yet." With that said, he broke into a trot and left, hurriedly.

Sheik snorted.

"Wait!" Link called out. Pit left as if he hadn't heard. Link turned back to the others, frowning. "Marth, how about you?"

Marth glanced at Sheik, who shook her head very, very slightly. "You know, I'd love to learn exactly what it is that you had planned for me, and is so bad that Pit wouldn't participate, but I have a brawl after this. In fact, look at the time! I gotta go. Ask somebody else, maybe." He got up, mouthing _tell me later_ at Sheik before leaving.

"Marth!" Marth didn't respond, and Link turned to Sheik. "Sheik?"

"One word," Sheik said. "No." At that word, she suddenly slid herself sideways out of her seat very very quickly, dodging Link's grasping hand.

"Sheik!" Sheik was already at the door, but she turned back to grin cheekily at him before leaving. "Sheik, you damn-" Link glanced at Ven and shut his mouth. "How about you, Ven?"

The boy's face was completely honest and wholly apologetic when he said, "Sorry, Link. I'd love to, but I really need to get back to work." He also slid out of his seat, and started jogging back towards the kitchen.

Link grimaced. He looked around the room for other possible candidates. All the other tables were empty, except for one, where R.O.B. was busy polishing the tabletop. Link closed his eyes tightly, and then opened them and turned to Ike: the single-worst Smasher in the Mansion to pull off a covert mission, a.k.a. (in this mansion) a prank.

"Ike?..." Link asked hesitantly, half-hoping that Ike would help, and half-hoping Ike would find an excuse to not participate.

Ike looked towards the ceiling. He seemed to think for a long moment, that Link waited out with gritted teeth. "Only if you can beat me at a Brawl game," he said, finally.

"…" Link looked one final time around the room, and sighed. "Forget it. Let's just go play catch."

"That works, too."

"Come on. I need you sign out the ball."

"…Right."

**A/N: So, finally done this. Took some time; was reading/watching a lot of drama, so moving back over to something light-hearted was a little difficult a lot of the time. **

**Hey! No line breaks for once!**

**I've forgotten most of my other comments by this point in time. I do remember one thing, though. I've decided from this chapter on that every story, I'll put a few tidbits of background info in these notes. They could help you understand some context/character personality that I can't otherwise fit in the story, plus, they're just fun to do ^.^ Anyways, enough talk; see below!**

**Fun fact: R.O.B.'s metal arms aren't very good at holding eggs, so he has a tendency to break them. Master Hand was the one who decided to have Ven cook the eggs in an attempt to save money, which is convenient because Ven's really damn good at cooking eggs :3**

**Fun fact #2: There's a slight glitch in R.O.B.'s programming that makes him forget to add certain ingredients (like sugar) to his first batch of muffins every morning. This causes a dilemma for the Smashers, because except for the first batch, his muffins are really, really good; but R.O.B. only starts cooking a new batch when the old one is half gone, and nobody wants those disgusting things. They used to take and then stealthily throw away muffins from the first batch, but Master Hand caught them at it once. There was lecture on wasting food and money and how expensive the Mansion is to maintain, along with a punishment. It was painful.**

**EDIT: ****Fact #4: Most of the awkwardness between Ven and the others that you'd expect from a situation like in the last arc (i.e. pointing a GUN at them) has already been defused the day before, when Ven joined them for dinner/at night after learning the ropes w/ R.O.B. It helps a lot that these particular Smashers are fairly good people and generally quite forgiving, but there's still a bit of one-sided animosity towards Ven from some of the other Smashers. I simply choose not to focus on those because I'd rather keep a positive, upbeat air for now.**

**That may change; I think my heart is pushing me to shift genre to action/adventure, but I will do my best to set up properly and also keep this fic funny and entertaining. It might not work out, but I won't know if I don't try. I don't really know why I'm saying this, to be honest. Maybe pre-emptively asking for forgiveness, lol.  
Anyhow, with this, it should be clear that I don't intend to drop this anytime soon. Please stay with me for the whole ride. I will take you through ups and downs, into familiar territories but maybe also into something fresh and new, so, enjoy!**

**Expect the next fic out before the end of winter holidays. **

**Finally, please review. I like feedback!**


	8. Spa Day pt 1

**A/N: Ah, I am so sorry T)_(T. This is very, very late, and I hope you can forgive me. *bows head.**

**I had a lot of stuff going on (helping my brother renovate his new house, recruitment season, midterms), and it was quite difficult for me to write this chapter, but the biggest part of it was just me also being really easily distracted :/ On the other hand, I got caught up with a lot of stuff I'd intended to watch/read, and found some new, but that really doesn't make it up to you guys :( I will try to make it up to you over the next little while, even with, yes, even with, reading week (and therefore helluvalotof exams right after) coming soon.**

**This has become an unintended two-parter lol. You don't see it now, but you will when I'm satisfied with the other half (which will come up in a few days), but, me being a guy, writing this was awkward in a lot of ways. Just let it be known that it was a request that caused much agonizing and questioning, and I hope the requestee is happy, and that we'll leave it at that, ok? (Plz.)**

**So like, I try to respond to reviews in a timely way, but I can't do anything about it if you guys don't accept messaging. So, Aey, hopefully you'll stick with me for at least part of the way, and read this? ^.^ I'm not very good with coming up with a new idea on my own (and besides, writing this sort of genre (sub-genre? Trope? Whatever you call the formula) was pretty chill, which helped me ease into it a bit), but I do try quite hard to make it my own. I don't know how successful I've been (influences factor heavily on me), although you seem to think I've done alright with it, which makes me very happy. I do exaggerate their qualities… Even with the awareness that these characters are larger than life, in some ways, I still think I go too far for the sake of a gag sometimes. It's a problem, but I'll try to phase out of it over time. And finally, I have **_**no**_** intention of making any OC a Gary-Stu/Mary-Sue, and hopefully, this chapter goes partially towards fixing that. If you read this, let me know if you think I'm on the right track? Thanks! :)**

**Anyways, who wants to hear from the author after a hiatus? Let's get on with the story- but first…**

**Disclaimer: With the exception of my brain-child Ven, none of these characters were conceived by me. Chat with Nintendo/SEGA/Konami and various others.**

"Hey guys!"

Marth and Ike were playing a first-person shooter on the TV in the lounge. They were in the middle of a deathmatch, where Ike was trying to keep his distance away from a certain knife-wielding maniac (a.k.a. Marth) when the door opened behind them and Zelda's voice called out. Although Ike replied with a distracted "Hey," neither of them otherwise reacted until Peach turned off the TV using the remote.

"Come on, guys, you should know better than this," she scolded. "If nothing else, at least turn around and greet us before we leave."

The boys both sighed heavily, slowly letting their controllers fall to their laps. Marth allowed his head to droop backwards and hang over the top of the couch. He stared at the three upside-down girls for a moment, a deadpan expression on his face, before drawling, "Yo."

His expression changed to one of surprise in the next moment, then pain right after that as Samus grabbed his hair and tugged. "Ow!" he shouted, jerking his head up, then twisting it to glare at Samus, seated with her back against the back of the couch. "What the heck was that for?!"

"Don't do that, Marth, it's gross. None of us want to see up your nostrils," she said calmly. She wasn't even looking at Marth, but was instead inspecting one of her nails nonchalantly.

"Doesn't mean you have to freaking sneak up on me and pull my hair!"

"Oh, sorry," said Samus, sparing Marth a glance now. "I think my bounty hunter instincts kicked in right there."

"Hmph. That better mean I'm a good catch," Marth grumbled, crossing his arms with an exaggerated motion.

"Kind of the opposite, actually. It means you're so easy I didn't even have to think about it," Samus replied, smirking at him.

"What? No way. I bet I could give you a run for your money," Marth exclaimed. Samus just smiled, and Marth began a one-sided argument. Meanwhile, Ike had stopped paying attention to the two early on in their exchange, and had turned to the others. He blinked. "You guys are dressed up fancy," he noted.

Peach beamed as Sheik and Zelda glanced at each other. Zelda was wearing a pair of silky white gloves and a long, light blue spring dress that matched the colour of her eyes, while Sheik had matched a lemon hoodie and a grey flat-cap with her usual pair of blue jeans. Peach was also wearing a slightly less poofy and slightly more expensive version of her signature pink dress, leaving Samus as the only one who hadn't dressed up at all, wearing a pair of sweatpants and a striped longsleeve. "Thanks," said Zelda. Sheik, who had opened her mouth to do the same, closed it and looked to the side self-consciously.

"You guys headed somewhere?" Ike asked, once he had had his fill of staring.

"Yep," said Peach, smiling happily. "We're going to the spa today! But you can't come," she added after a moment, frowning. She looked like she was deep in thought.

_... Ok…_ Ike thought. "Well, I'm not sure I wanted to come anyways…" he said. _Especially if you're driving,_ he added, but only, and wisely, to himself.

"Oh, sorry! I didn't mean it that way," said Peach, waving her hands apologetically. "I meant that you literally couldn't come, because of the brawls you have scheduled. None of you guys can," she said, pursing her lips in annoyance. "All of you boys have brawls today. Especially Pit."

"Yeah, he was really busy today," noted Zelda, who had a habit of checking the notice boards in the dining hall every morning. "Most of the time, nobody has a schedule that heavy; Master Hand must be mad at him or something."

"Well, I doubt he'd come along even if he were free. It's not like he enjoyed his last trip with us…" said Sheik, looking at the other two askance.

"Why not? What happened last time?" asked Marth, a second before Ike would have asked the same question. The four women looked at each other, and Zelda opened her mouth, but before any of them could answer him, the door to the lounge opened a crack, and a green-eyed boy stuck his head in, as if looking for somebody. "Er, Ms. Toadstool?" said Ven after he saw her in the group. "Master Hand told me you wanted to see me?"

"Perfect!" Peach exclaimed, clapping her hands. "Get ready to go outside, Ven. You're coming with us for the afternoon."

"Um, I'm not sure I should come with you," said Ven uncertainly. "I think Master Hand has work for me today."

"Oh, don't worry about him," said Peach dismissively. "You've been working plenty hard enough. It's the weekend! You should take a break." When Ven still hesitated, glancing at the lounge doors, Peach added imploringly, "There's also a wonderful bakery that makes the tastiest cheesecake I've ever eaten. We want to get one, but it's too big for just the four of us. Could you help us finish it?"

Ike chuckled at the blatant bribery, and Marth smirked widely. Peach shot them both a glare, but Ven didn't notice the exchange. Instead, his facial expression hovered somewhere between wistful and longing. In the end, the cheesecake must've decided him, as he nodded, quite seriously. "My coat is by the door, so I'm ready to leave whenever."

Peach looked inquiringly at the others. "Well, we're all set to go, so why don't we go right now? The more time we've got, the better!" She beamed at the others.

Samus responded with an annoyed frown. "You said we'd leave at 11," she stated grumpily, looking pointedly at the clock on the wall, which read 10:10.

"Oh come on," Peach marched over to Samus and took her by the arm, pulling her to the door. "Stop pretending you don't like trying on new outfits, Samus. I know you love having the extra time to try all the shops."

"No, I don't. And that's not the point, anyways!" Samus protested. Despite this, she let Peach pull her out into the hallway. Sheik rolled her eyes and followed them out the door, clasping her hands behind her neck. Zelda was walking through the door when Marth called out to her. "Wait, Zelda! You still haven't told us what happened!"

"Oh, right." Zelda turned to look at him. She raised a finger to rest against her lips as she thought for a moment, and then shrugged. "We gotta go now, though. Maybe later, ok?" Without waiting for answer, she turned on the spot and left.

"Zelda! Jeez, that girl. You can't just drop a juicy tidbit like that and then just leave," Marth complained to Ike.

"Yeah, what a massive tease," said Ike. He yawned and settled comfortably back into his seat.

"Still, Pit never turns down a request," mused Marth. "I wonder what they did to him."

"Maybe they made him carry all of their shopping bags?" offered Ike lazily

"Probably," Marth laughed. "That always happens. I don't think that's a good enough reason, though. Maybe they made him wait for them for a long time?"

Ike thought for a moment, and then shook his head. "Nah, don't think so. Didn't Pit just get his DS then, and was carrying it around everywhere?"

"Is it?" Marth blinked. He looked up at the ceiling as he started counting weeks on his hand, trying to remember. "Yeah, you're right. He probably would've just started playing Nintendogs if they'd left him alone." He thought for a few moments longer, then chuckled as a thought came to him. "Maybe they abandoned him in a perfume store."

Ike snorted. "Yeah, that'd do it," he said, laughing.

Marth grinned, and then held up his controller. "Come on. Let's continue, huh?"

Ike sighed. "Back to the knife-wielding maniac, huh?" He picked his controller back up and unpaused the game.

"Don't blame me, man. This is the only way to even the playing field," Marth said, a little distractedly. As he spoke, the sound of footsteps marked somebody walking in.

"Liar, you're on a five-kill streak. Six-kill," amended Link, as he came forwards to lean on the back of the couch. "You just like using the knife, don't you?"

"Not my fault it's so smooth and elegant," said Marth. He mimed the stabbing motion made in the game and pretended to groan in pleasure.

"Hey, Link. Where were you? Zelda just left like two minutes ago," said Ike, ignoring the movements Marth was now making in the game.

"Uh, showering. I already said goodbye to Zelda before I started. I expected her to be long gone by now, actually."

"Wait, that can't be right," said Ike, not even bothering to pay attention to the game by this point. "Samus said they were supposed to leave at eleven."

"Ok, what Zelda literally said was, 'We always get together an hour earlier, and we usually leave soon after.' Apparently, it's a thing," said Link, rolling his eyes. "Guess somebody held them up?"

"Yeah, they were waiting for Ven."

Link blinked. "Oh. Wow, right, I forgot about him," he said. He laughed, a little uncertainly. "That's probably not gonna be good."

Marth perked up at that, and he turned to look at Link. "Why not?" he asked curiously. "Do you know something?"

"Er…. Maybe," said Link. "Forget about that. Let me in on this game, it's painful to watch."

"Are you serious, Link?" said Marth incredulously. "Tell us."

"Not telling. Some things I shouldn't say." Link sniggered. "As much as I might want to." He walked over to stand beside the couch. "Move over," he added, flicking the back of his hand at Marth. Marth stared at him challengingly, cocking his head to the side. Link sighed. He took a few steps back, then vaulted over the back of the couch, eliciting shouts from Marth and Ike.

"Gross, your hair's still wet! Get off of me!"

"Dude, what the hell? You could've just come over to my side, jeez."

Link just grinned at them and grabbed a controller. "How 'bout this? If either of you can get more kills than me, I'll tell you."

Marth blinked, then grinned viciously. "You're on." Ike sighed, but was smiling when he restarted the game.

* * *

When construction of the Mansion had been in the planning stages, promising and newly conceived, many factors had been taken into consideration. Due to the nature of the Mansion's inhabitants, the location of the Mansion definitely had to be off the beaten path. However, complete isolation was out of the question- that would defeat the Mansion's purpose completely, and would cause needless logistical problems, besides. As such, a suitable mountain range had been found, located about half an hour by car from a small town, and at least ten minutes from the closest living humans.

While the Mansion was somewhat self-sustainable, thanks to solar panels, vegetable gardens, and a little magical tweaking, growing enough food for forty-two mouths was impractical, and besides, a few of the Smashers would probably object to the raising and slaughtering of livestock. As such, about half of the Mansion's food came from semi-weekly shopping trips to the grocery store in the nearby town. Master Hand was not always available, so a few of the more responsible Smashers took it upon themselves to learn how to drive. Some were successful, some… less so.

Ven tried not to wince as his head tapped the side window for a third time. It would've been worse, if not for the fact that he was scrunching his body up, holding onto the door handle in an iron grip that helped to hide his terrified shaking. Up in front, Peach jerked the wheel hard back to the left, face pouting in concentration. The car seemed to slip, threatening to slide sideways into the guardrail, and Ven squeezed his eyes shut in anticipation. Thankfully, the pitch of the engine's hum changed slightly as the car changed gears, and they lurched forwards, pushing Ven's head back into his headrest. He opened his eyes. Seeing that the road in front of them was straight for a little while, he relaxed his grip slightly, and wiped a sweat drop off his forehead with his left hand.

_Holy, _thought Ven. After getting to know some of the Smashers over the last week, he had realized that they weren't so different after all, and had started thinking of them as normal people. He couldn't really do that right now; the living proof was pretty much being shoved right in his face. _Peach's horrible driving is one thing, but what's with the others?!_

Aside from Peach, who was moving very energetically as she drove, all of the women in the car seemed completely unfazed. Sheik barely moved with every swerve, even though she was talking about some TV series/book with Zelda, who literally did not move, no matter how sharp the turn. Samus, on the other hand, _was_ being jerked from left to right, yet never seemed to hit the gearshift or her side door, and was calmly reading a book while her body moved, even flipping a page during one of the bends.

_Definitely not normal, _Ven thought. _How are they doing this? _He stared at the others curiously, trying to see if he could figure out any tricks he might need in the future. Unfortunately, that had the consequence of leaving him unprepared for the red light up ahead, and his forehead smacked into the metal rods that held up Samus's headrest.

_Owww…_ Ven rubbed his forehead. Beside him, a concerned voice spoke. "Are you alright, Ven?"

Eyebrows creased, Ven looked sideways at Zelda. "Yeah, I'm fine." He tried to smile at her, but just ended up wincing instead.

"Hold on, let me see that," said Zelda, coaxing Ven's hand away. Seeing a bruise on his forehead, she _tsked _loudly. She took off the glove on her right hand, and encircled the bruise with her fingers. Of the triforce imprinted on her hand, one triangle was already glowing. As Zelda concentrated, the other two lit up, and then the triforce dimmed. As she took her hand away, Ven reached up and touched the spot, but felt no pain.

"Wow, thanks, Zelda!" Ven suddenly bit his lip. "Sorry for making you use magic. I'm just not used to Peach's driving, I guess."

"Huh? Oh, don't worry about it. I was already using it to steady myself," said Zelda, smiling in return. She was a shade paler than she had been before, but it wasn't enough of a difference for anybody to notice except for Sheik. Sheik bumped Zelda's hand, causing Zelda to look at her. They looked at each other for a short second, then Sheik let out an inaudible sigh, and chuckled.

"Getting used to Peach's driving? I don't think it's possible," she said, provoking a loud "Hey!" from the driver's seat. This prompted Samus to close her book and turn around.

"Peach's driving," Samus explained calmly to Ven, "is like re-entry into an atmosphere. There's a lot of jerking around, and you're never sure you're going to live."

"Samus!" Peach tried to hit Samus on the shoulder with the back of her hand, but as soon as her hand left the wheel, the car began to swerve and decelerate dangerously. All of the passengers instinctively grabbed onto the nearest solid thing: Sheik, the handhold above the side window; Ven, the metal rods that he had just headbutted a moment ago; Samus, the door handle; and Zelda, who didn't have a seat belt and so fell straight forwards, was forced to clutch Sheik's arm and Ven's thigh. "Both hands on the wheel, Peach. Both hands!" yelled Samus, whose other hand, for some reason, was clutching tightly to her seatbelt. Peach managed to wrap her hand back around the steering wheel. After a few agonizing seconds of skidding, the car suddenly came back under control, lurching forwards as the wheels properly caught the pavement. The others slowly lifted their heads, Sheik the first among them.

"Whew," Sheik sighed as she adjusted her cap. "That was crazy. I thought you said you had driving experience?" she teased, grinning mischievously and drawing a yowl of outrage from the front seat. Peach didn't turn or raise her hands from the wheel this time, though. Instead, she exclaimed in an annoyed tone, "I do! I'm really good at driving karts! It's just, a car's so different from a kart!" As they spoke, Ven lifted his head, fear subsiding as it was replaced by something else.

"Umm, Zelda?" said Ven awkwardly. _Ow ow ow ow ow._

"Hmm? Oh, sorry!" said Zelda, letting go of him. As soon as Zelda's back was turned, Ven massaged his leg. _I didn't know princesses were this strong- ow._

"Are you guys alright?" Zelda asked of the car in general. "Peach? Samus?"

"I'm fine," stated Peach shortly. Samus shook her head and said, "I'm alright. But Peach, next time you want to give me a heart attack, could you warn me first?" Peach deigned to not respond, gritting her teeth visibly instead.

"Sheik?"

"I have a hangnail," offered Sheik, mischievous smile still in place. "Nothing a good spa treatment couldn't fix, as long as, you know, it doesn't happen again on our way back." Ven suddenly felt the urge to look out the window as Peach's teeth ground audibly, before she said, through gritted teeth, "Oh, look, it's a cliff. I hope my hands don't slip- oops!"

The car seemed to skip a beat as Peach jerked the wheel back and forth, almost causing Ven to yell in fright. _So scary…_

"Ven?"

"I'm alright." His reply was undermined as Peach took a sharp turn, pressing his cheek to the window mid-reply. To his surprise, though Sheik and Samus were yet again unaffected, this time Zelda also lost her balance and fell onto him. As she righted herself and _tsked_, he suddenly caught the sweet scent of perfume, and blinked_._

"I forgot." She pulled off her glove again, then looked at Ven. "Ven, I'm going to try to cast a spell that will stop us from falling again. I usually only use it for myself, though, so you're going to have to squeeze close to me if this is going to work." Her tone made it clear that she expected him to follow her instructions, and he didn't even consider doing otherwise. Still, he hesitated.

"Um, okay," he said uncertainly, looking back at her, then at her arm. He gingerly took hold of it.

"Closer, Ven." He looked at her again, then leaned towards her until his cheek almost touched her shoulder.

"Closer!" she said again, a little impatiently this time.

He looked up at her eyes. "Uh…" he looked down- "where-" he looked up again- "do I…" and promptly went red.

Zelda looked at him with a surprised look on her face, then looked down at herself. A large smile quickly spread across her face, and she suddenly wrapped an arm around his back, grabbing him by the shoulder. "So sweet! So cute!" she said happily, as she pulled him into an embrace that left him lying on her lap.

Caught completely off-guard, he could not move or think for a few seconds. Instead he just laid there, mind blank, wrapped in Zelda's warm, soft, and strawberry-scented arms. By the time he came back to himself, Sheik was looking straight at him, and as he looked back at her, she grinned and winked. Mortified, he tried to bring his hands over to cover his eyes but couldn't find the space for his arms. He ended up staring at the floor instead, ears hot.

"Z-Zelda, can you let go, please?" he asked, trying and failing to keep his voice normal.

"Nope," she answered brightly. "Spell's already going, see?" The back of her hand came into view, one triangle shining, before it withdrew itself again. "You're not allowed to move, or you'll mess it up, 'kay?"

Ven groaned in reply. He heard Peach giggle from the driver's seat, then heard, rather than felt, the car go out of control once again. It was a strange feeling; he could hear tires screeching, could hear light thuds and shouted voices coming from the other seats, and could even feel a sort of spinning in his stomach, yet none of it physically moved him. It was as if he were a permanent fixture rooted to the car. He gagged when the feeling hit him; while it wasn't exactly unpleasant, it was strange enough that his body rejected it, and he fought hard not to throw up from the pseudo motion sickness.

Zelda noticed almost right away, and frowned sympathetically. She had had the exact same feeling the first time she'd tried the spell out, and try as she might, she couldn't find a way to fix it, so she knew what he was going through. So, she stroked his back softly, as if her hand could brush his rebelling stomach calm.

Peach got the car back under control again, taking the worst of the feeling away from Ven. Left in a dazed state, he vaguely heard Samus tell Peach to keep her eyes on the road, and Peach's request for "no more distractions until we're out of the mountains." Sheik appeared again, a concerned look on her face this time, and he smiled weakly in return and tried to get up. Zelda stopped him. "Don't move, Ven. I need to keep the spell going, and we should stop distracting Peach. Just, lie here for a bit, alright?" Ven nodded, then relaxed and started to let himself daydream. Zelda caught a look from Sheik, and smiled at her, who in turn snorted quietly and looked away, a smile on her face, as well. The rest of the car ride passed relatively uneventfully.

* * *

Ven was still daydreaming when Zelda tapped him on the shoulder and said, "We're here." He yawned widely as his consciousness surfaced, then abruptly realized he was still on Zelda's lap and jolted upright, blushing. He immediately regretted it when he saw the shocked and hurt expression on Zelda's face. Face burning, he opened his mouth to apologize. "Sorry! I'm sorry! I didn't mean to, Zelda! I just-" he struggled to find the right words.

Zelda's expression had turned thoughtful. "It's alright, Ven. I think, we might've been coming on a little strong. I mean, more than being strangers, you didn't even know we _existed_ a week ago. Working magic on you was a little much."

Ven was shaking his head before Zelda had finished talking. "No! It's not that!" He bit his tongue, then said, "I like you guys, and I don't mind the magic at all! It's just that, w-well…" He stuttered to a stop, suddenly finding it hard to go on.

Zelda raised an eyebrow. After a moment, her face relaxed into a smile. "I see. You're easily embarrassed, aren't you?"

Ven looked away, unsure of how to react. "It's not that…" he mumbled, half to himself. "Not really…"

Zelda laughed. "So indecisive. Oh well, at least you're cute when you're embarrassed," she said, ruffling his hair. "Come on, let's go. The others are waiting outside."

Ven looked around and realized that the car was, indeed, empty. He turned back to say something to Zelda, but she was already going out the opposite door. Left feeling that Zelda didn't really understand what he felt, he exited the car a little grumpily. His annoyance, however, was quickly replaced by surprise when he finally saw the mall.

"What is it?" said Zelda as she came up beside him.

"It's big…" Ven said. He looked to the left, and then to the right. The mall had to be at least fifty parking rows wide, and although he couldn't see the far side, he had the feeling that it was extremely long, as well. It was busy, too; people walked in and out so often that the doors were almost never all closed at the same time.

Zelda giggled at him. "You're a city kid, right? You've never seen an outlet mall before, then? They're bigger than most city malls because they have so much more space, and this one is especially big, said Master Hand."

"It's huge!" exclaimed Ven. "How many stores are in that thing?"

"One-hundred ninety-two," said Zelda confidently. "We counted."

"Man…"

Peach's voice suddenly shouted out from where she stood, already at the entrance to the mall, with the others. "Hey guys! Come on, let's go already!"

"Looked enough?" asked Zelda. Ven nodded, and they rushed to catch up to the others. When they got there, Peach was in the midst of planning furiously. "… Abercrombie and Fitch, DKNY, Calvin Klein… Oh, which entrance is closest? I need to figure out where to go first."

"North entrance, Calvin Klein is closest, we'll cycle east then south," recited Samus calmly.

"But we're not going to lululemon today. Maybe we should go straight first, then go east," said Peach, fretting out loud. Zelda immediately joined the conversation. "But if we do that, we won't pass Starbucks until after lunch. I think we should stick…"

While Ven watched, a little confused, Sheik walked up to him. "Hey Ven."

Ven turned to look at her. "Hi, Sheik," he said a little awkwardly.

"I wanted to ask a question." Ven nodded. "Did you bring a cellphone or anything to pass the time with?"

"I don't own a cellphone," he replied. "Why?"

"Hmm," said Sheik, frowning. "You might be bored without one if you came with us. Do you want to go explore or something for a bit, and we'll meet up later?"

"Ummm…" Ven thought for a second, then decided that it would probably be smarter to stay with the group. He was about to say as much when something caught his attention out of the corner of his eye. He turned to look at it, and saw…

"A chocolate shop, huh?" Sheik laughed. "Well, I suppose you _could_ spend a lot of time just looking at all the sweets. You can go if you want," she said, starting to walk towards it. "Actually, since you don't have a cell, I should probably go with you, huh?"

"NO." A hand suddenly passed through Ven's field of vision, fingers wrapping tightly around Sheik's arm. He looked over his shoulder and saw that it belonged to an ominous-looking Zelda, Peach and Samus standing a little distance away.

"Eh-heh, Zelda," said Sheik, smiling innocuously. "I was just going to help Ven over here; it's his first time in the mall."

Zelda's glare almost seemed to intensify before it melted away, leaving a pleading look. "We need you!"

"Yeah, right. Peach? Samus?"

The two women jerked as their names were called, and both of them backed off a little bit, not saying anything.

"Ok, fine, I need you! You're just the right size, Sheik, and we can buy you something nice, too!" Zelda pleaded.

"What about Ven?" said Sheik, trying to find a reason not to go with Zelda.

"He'll be fine, it's not the wilderness. He won't get lost in a mall- right, Ven?" His expression must've showed his disgust, because Zelda smiled triumphantly. "He's not a baby. All he needs is your cellphone, and we're all set."

"I can go with him," said Samus suddenly. "It's not like I need new outfits; I still have a few I haven't used."

"There, all set," said Zelda. "No excuses, Sheik."

"Ven, don't you want to eat chocolate with me?" asked Sheik, clutching at straws now.

"Don't listen to her, Ven," said Zelda. "We're eating cheesecake afterwards. You don't want to make her fat, right?"

Sheik simultaneously laughed and tried to push Zelda away. "Stop, you'll give him the wrong impression."

Ven thought for a long moment, and then smiled at them uncertainly. "I want to eat chocolate with you Sheik, but… Zelda's right. You shouldn't eat too much, it's not good for a ninja."

Sheik gasped, then hung her head. "If you put it that way… Okay," she sighed, dejectedly. "Let's go, Zelda." Zelda grinned and led her away by the arm, looking back at them to say, "See you soon!" Peach followed after them before they disappeared into the crowd, humming under her breath, leaving Ven alone with Samus. The two of them stood there for a few seconds, before Samus said, "Let's go." She strode towards the shop, with Ven following after, and they entered the store together.

**A/N: Not the greatest spot to break a story, but the one I felt most comfortable with. You'll get the next half soon, anyways, so hopefully this awkward break can be forgiven.**

**Let's see…. Comments, comments.**

**Well, I'm not a girl, so doing conversations that are purely between two girls is a little hard for me to do, which makes Ven pretty convenient as a way to flesh out their characters a little more. As usual, they're a little outrageous, but hopefully within the acceptable, "Oh she's like my friend" range. You can probably see an anime influence on me, though; it's been strong recently, with how much I've been watching/reading the stuff…**

**This conversation did end up looking a lot like how the guys' conversations usually go, now that I look back, but I think that's fairly accurate; at least it's better than having girls talk only about boys and related… phenomena (it's late at night and I'm tired. I have questionable vocabulary choices when I'm tired, lol). Decently done; the worst is yet to come in the next chapter, so criticism could wait and probably get a juicier target lol. **

**Um, Ven. His personality keeps changing in my head, and the request really didn't help things lol. I think I've got a handle on how I want him to be, though, but I apologize if his character seems a little… wobbly. **

**Final note: Sheik eats a lot of food, more than Marth. Guess she's just one of those people who never put on weight, huh? But Ven doesn't know that. Zelda's a schemer :P ****Also, as for the thing that happened to Pit? Related to the request, ofc. I'm not about to spoil it here... BUT. The more genre savvy of you might know what's to come. If you do, let me know. It means I'll have to become more subtle, heh.**


	9. Spa Day pt 2

**EDIT: Fixed ending a little (4 a.m. me no logic good); will probably do so again until I'm satisfied, but I wanted to get this out and off my chest.**

**A/N: As promised, part 2 of this little story! The time gap wasn't as big this time, thank god. Midterms are a *****. Otherwise, I didn't get distracted **_**too**_** much although I recently found a way to play Kingdom Hearts 358/2 Days, which opened up a whole can of memories and feelings -.-**

**Anyhoo, there's not much to spoil, since it's mostly character development. It also feels nice to change settings every once in a while, otherwise I'll get tired of constructing my mental image of the Mansion. Of course, a spa wasn't exactly the best choice, and I'm sure I did a lot of stuff wrong, but that's alright. It gives you guys something to complain about :D**

**Anyways, ty for the review Icefire6, was very helpful to me :) Also, thank you very much for the feedback, Aey, and guys, feel free to let me know if you think there's something I could do better.**

**Branching off of Icefire6's questions, here's a somewhat important clarification, and a couple less important ones'll be at the end notes,. These are just what I remember for now, but I'll add more as I feel I should in future chapters**

**Brawls. Yeah, I haven't been very clear in distinguishing brawls and playing Brawl, oops. In any case, while not all of the Smashers actually like to brawl, nearly all of them think that it's necessary or at least helpful. They all have their own reasons for fighting, although some you could probably guess at. (I.e. Peach wants to stop being captured by Bowser all the time, so she needs to work on her fighting skills, and Bowser can't let **_**her **_**get stronger than him, else he'll be a laughingstock when he fails to capture her next time). On the other definition of Brawl: Link doesn't like playing Brawl because a) he thinks his character is underpowered, and b) he seriously sucks at the game. Like, to the point that he attacks in the wrong direction. :| Lol**

**Anyways, **_**way**_** too much text. Disclaimer time, and then we go!**

**Disclaimer: None of the Smashers belong to me, they're all owned by their respective companies. **

As soon as Samus entered the store, a thick, sweet aroma filled her nostrils, and she unconsciously took a deep breath through her nose. Beside her, she saw out of the corner of her eye, Ven was doing the same, eyes closed happily. Briefly amused, she took a look around the store. It was fairly small; there were only five aisles to the store, and she could see the back from where she stood at the door. Yet, the shop was fairly busy, perhaps because of its proximity to the entrance, or perhaps because of the small chocolate fountain on display by the window. The fountain, along with a few carved chocolate statues, was the source of the scent in the air that had the shop's customers stop every few meters to inhale deeply.

"Samus," chimed a voice from between her shoulder and elbow. She tilted her head down to see green eyes staring up at her. "Let's go?"

"Right," she said, following Ven deeper into the store. She'd zoned out again. Well, things like this happened sometimes. She'd tried quite hard to adjust to this world, but, even after more than a year spent here, she still found herself constantly needing to adjust. She disliked what she'd seen of this world outside of the Mansion; it seemed too shallow, too carefree, too _different_. In her world, she always had to be thinking, planning, or doing, simply to survive. There was no way she could adjust to the sluggish pace of a world so sheltered and decadent. So, she always distracted herself with something or another, but even with so many different ways of entertaining herself, she half thought she would have gone insane if there weren't so many worthy opponents to fight here.

She blinked suddenly, finding herself standing in the middle of an aisle, with Ven beside her looking intently at the shelves, and sighed. She'd zoned out again. She'd lately been using her brain too much, and her body too little, probably. She needed to get her focus back. "Guess I'll spar with Snake when I get back," she muttered to herself.

"Huh?" said Ven, looking to her. "Did you say something?"

"No," she replied, without looking back at him.

"Ok." There was a short pause, and then he suddenly asked, "Samus, did you know they had raspberry filled chocolates?"

"No, I didn't," she said, turning around to look, a little curious despite herself.

"Oh," he said, looking surprised. "Me neither."

"What's with that oh?" she said, arching an eyebrow and looking at him. Ven, in turn, looked a little intimidated by her tone of voice. "You're the one who lives in this world, aren't you?"

"Yea..." Now it was a confused expression. She sighed.

"As far as I can tell, you like sweets a lot. Plus, I've only been here for a year. What makes think I'd know about it more than you do?"

"Oh," he said, as understanding swept across his face. "Well, I do like sweet stuff, but my sister never let me into a chocolate shop before, so I thought they only had brown and white. And, well, when I first met you, you looked like you were really smart, so I thought it might be something you knew."

"Huh." Irked as she had been, she couldn't help but feel a little pleased by his earnest and honest answer. They both lapsed back into silence as Ven started staring at the raspberry chocolates. A few moments passed, where Samus slowly got more and more confused, before looking at the boy's wistful expression and realizing. "Do you want to get it or something?"

Ven jumped slightly, and looked back at her, abashed look on his face. "Yeah… But I forgot to bring money, so I can't buy any…"

"Well, if you want, I can get you some," she offered. _I mean, it's Master Hand's cashwe're using, and it's not like that's going to run out fast, _she thought. To her surprise, Ven shook his head, a resolute expression on his face.

"No. I can't let you buy something for me. I should use my own money," he said, firmly.

_Huh._ "Well, it's not a bad policy, but you looked like you really wanted it," she said. "How 'bout this? I'll lend you some money, and you can pay me back when we get to the Mansion."

"Umm…" He looked down as he thought, for a moment, then looked back at her. "Ok." He picked up one of the large boxes quite happily, and then picked up another.

"Hold on, why are you getting two?"

"Huh? One's for you. You like chocolate, too, right? After all, you came with me." _Well, that's not exactly right...it was partly to reduce the amount of time I'll spend trying on clothes. _Although, it was true that she wanted to try this flavour… _Ahhh, no, I shouldn't give into temptation._

"Well, I do like chocolate, but I'm, er, trying to save up to get a better computer," she lied blatantly. "Just get one for yourself, I don't need it."

"Huh? Oh, no, I'm going to pay you for yours, too."

"What?" _I swear, this brat is impossible…_ Some of what she was feeling must've shown through her face, because Ven took an unconscious step back, a shade paler.

"W-well, it's your birthday soon, right?" _Eh? _"Peach told me before we left. I'm happy I found something you like, actually. I was worried I wouldn't be able to find anything." Ven looked away, rubbing the back of his neck, and laughed self-consciously.

_We barely met a week ago, but he still wants to buy me a birthday present? _Caught off guard, she looked away for a moment. "Thanks. Are you sure, though? I mean, you're still just a b- kid, you can't have that much money. Besides, we're getting cheesecake after, right?"

"Oh, right…" It seemed he'd completely forgotten about that. He looked more thoughtful than concerned, however, and his lips were moving silently as if he were counting. He nodded, then turned to Samus and said, "It's ok, I have enough money. I'll just work harder to make it back."

"You mean around the Mansion? Wait… Does Master Hand even pay you?"

"Well… Not yet. Oh, but he says it'll be soon."

"You-" Samus spluttered, then sighed and started to chuckle. "You really are an impossible brat, aren't you?" she said. She chuckled again at the expression on his face. "Come on, let's go buy these. We should meet up with the others soon, and besides, I don't want you finding something else to buy, as well." She took his hand and pulled him towards the register.

"A-ah, ok."

As they paid the cashier, Samus suddenly realized that she'd stopped thinking of Ven as a stranger, already. Instead of the cool indifference she treated most people with, and unlike the straight-faced teasing she directed towards her friends and people she liked, she'd somehow unconsciously starting treating Ven in a way that she only really treated Pit and Pikachu. Since when had she started letting her guard down so easily?

She looked at him happily chatting with the cashier. _Well, maybe a little bit of it is him_. She decided that, when she got back, she'd ask Master Hand to start paying him, at least in allowance if nothing else. No, she'd make him. She indulged in a brief smile, when the back of her neck prickled.

_Someone's watching us?_ She looked over her shoulder, but all she saw was a trio of high school girls poring over a chocolate rabbit, and a bored redhead restocking the shelves. _Whew. Must've been my imagination. There's no way Master Hand would be here, and even if he was, he can't read my mind. _The last thought nagged at her, but she ignored the feeling and resolved to have a good, long spar with Snake when they got back.

* * *

Ven looked around incredulously, surveying the store. He turned towards Samus and asked, "You sure this is the right store?"

"Yeah, definitely." Samus strode confidently into the store. She headed straight for the dressing rooms in the back, completely ignoring the lingerie that surrounded her. Ven couldn't be quite so stoic. He tried not to stare at anything as he followed Samus, his face feeling warm.

As they approached the back, they began to hear snatches of conversation.

"Here, try this one."

"I liked the pink one better."

"The pink one's too tight."

"Really? Did you grow a bit?"

Ven's face had heated up even more when Samus called out, "Yo. We're here."

There was a brief pause, and then:

"Samus? Perfect! Sheik needs to take a little break."

"Yeah, I do- HOLD ON, WHAT ARE YOU DOING?" The door creaked open slightly before it slammed shut again with a surprisingly loud noise. "LET ME CHANGE FIRST."

"I just wanted to let her in so we could get started, sheesh. It's not like we haven't all seen each other already by now."

"_Ven's_ with us! I don't want to- to taint him, or anything. Or did you forget he was with us? You were _so_ looking forward to making him carry all our bags."

"Sheik! I- I am insulted by this accusation. I was not going to make him carry all our bags all the time. I just want to take a photo and show it to the boys, make them feel bad for not coming." All the while, the sounds of rustling cloth came from under the door. Ven, feeling like his head was hurting, sat on one of the chairs by the doors.

After a little more bickering, the door finally opened and Sheik came out, fully dressed- _whew_. Then Peach called, "Come in, Samus!" and Ven's attention shifted beyond Sheik into the room. He caught a glimpse of a definitely not dressed Peach before Sheik spun on her foot and pulled the door shut, hard enough to make it rock on its hinges. She turned around, and the expression on her face made Ven shiver.

"I swear…" she grumbled, barely loud enough for Ven to hear. "Under, please," she then said to Samus, pointing at the crack. Samus' eyebrows narrowed, and she opened her mouth as if to speak, then she looked at Ven. She closed her mouth, then after a moment, shrugged and squeezed into the crack. Ven suddenly found himself fascinated by a light fixture as his ears went red. He heard Zelda and Peach greet Samus, then saw Sheik take a seat beside him out of the corner of his eye.

"Eh, sorry about that, Ven," said Sheik. "Peach has a bit of a modesty problem, since she comes from a country of mostly toadstools. She made a store employee faint from a nosebleed once."

"Hey," interjected Peach from inside the dressing room. "I didn't know he was a boy, ok? His hair was so long. Otherwise I wouldn't have changed in front of him."

Ven smiled at that. "It's alright," he said quietly to Sheik.

He felt Sheik move closer to her, and saw her head tilt up. "What are you looking at, anyways?"

"Nothing, really. I'm just afraid of what I'll see when I look down."

He felt, rather than saw, Sheik raise her eyebrows. "Well, I'm dressed," she said. "Unless… it's the store you don't want to look at? Come on, don't be shy, it's just clothes," she laughed as she draped a bra around Ven's shoulders.

Ven jumped when he saw what it was, and his face instantly went red, but he found himself answering boldly back. "It's too big for me, Sheik," he said casually as he turned to her and offered her the bra, pinching the strap between two fingers. "Why don't you use it?"

Sheik blinked in surprise, then grinned. "Sure thing," she said. With one smooth motion, she put the frilly pink thing on over her clothes, and posed for Ven's inspection, puckering her lips into a duck face. "How's this?"

Ven was already laughing at her, and she started to laugh along with him. "Ah, it's too big for me, too," she said as she wiped her tears away. "That's a nice reaction, though, Ven. I thought you were the type who got really nervous around this sort of stuff."

Hearing that, he started to feel self-conscious again. "I am," he admitted. "It's just that my sister used to do this sort of thing to me when we went shopping together, so I sorta know what to say." He immediately felt uneasy saying so, and wished he could take back his words, but that was impossible.

"You have an older sister?" Sheik asked curiously. "What's she like?"

Ven looked at the ground. "I don't really know how to describe her," he said, uncertainly. "She teases me a lot, and yells at me a lot. She likes sticking her nose in my business a lot, too, but she always tried to help. She's crazy smart, and she was really popular at school, but was always really lazy about her chores at home, and she liked staying up late." He snorted. "I had to learn how to make breakfast because she could never wake up on time, even with her annoying alarm clock. She looked out for me a lot, though, even when she was really busy."

"She sounds like a great sister," said Sheik, smiling at him. "Does she know you're with us? I mean, it's been a week since you've been back home. I bet your family's worried."

"A-ah, w-well…" He took a deep breath, and then let it out. "It'll be fine. Master Hand helped me figure everything out. I'm a little worried about what she'll say when she comes back, though."

"She went somewhere?"

"She's away, yeah." His eyes flicked up to the ceiling. "She's at university right now, but she'll come back eventually." The corner of his mouth jerked up, as if to smile.

"University?" asked Sheik. "Oh right, I've heard about that before. What is it, exactly? We don't have any in Hyrule."

"Ah." Ven shrugged. "Well, I don't really know a lot either… But I'll tell you what my sister told me."

"Ok."

"Right." He leaned forward, furrowing his brow thoughtfully. "I remember a couple years back, she was always in her room. She kept saying that she had to stay in to write tons and tons of essays, but I still don't believe that's what she was doing…"

* * *

They walked out of the mall a few hours later, a multitude of bags from various stores held in their hands. Peach skipped every few steps as she led the group, humming lightheartedly.

"You seem happy," commented Samus.

"I am happy," said Peach, turning back with a pretty smile. "Today is a good day. We found a lot stuff we liked, Sheik didn't disappear partway through, and we haven't even gotten to the best part of the day yet."

"Cheesecake?" asked Ven, already thinking about which flavour he wanted to try out.

"Nope," said Sheik, in the middle of a yawn. "Well, not yet. Spa comes before cheesecake."

"What?" Ven stopped in his tracks. "I thought it was just shopping."

"Oops, did I not tell you?" giggled Peach. "Well, I'll tell you now. We're going to the spa!" She grinned at him.

"Bleh." He stuck out his tongue. "Can I just stay in the car?"

"Well, that's no fun," said Peach, with a confused look on her face. "Why would you want to do that?"

Ven frowned at Peach. "Isn't the spa for girls only?"

"That is not true," said Peach sternly. "Guys go to the spa, too."

"Like who?"

"Well… Link came-"

"I asked him to," explained Zelda.

"-and Snake-"

"I forced him to," said Samus, a sly smile on her face.

"-and Marth-"

"Well, _he_ actually wanted to come," grinned Sheik.

"-and Pit."

A loud snort came from Sheik. She tried to cover it up by looking away, but Ven glimpsed the edge of a grin as she turned away. Zelda didn't try to hide her smile at all, but Ven thought she might've been smiling for a reason's different than Sheik's. He was unsure of what to make of the others' reactions, but hearing that other guys had gone before him made him feel better, even if they were heroes. Besides, he didn't really want to stay in the car with nothing to do, anyways. At least while they were shopping, at least one of the girls was around for him to talk with.

In fact, now that he thought about it, they'd probably done it on purpose so he wouldn't feel bored. Looking at the others, he was sure of it. He smiled. "Well, I guess I could try it," he muttered to himself out loud.

"You will?" Peach had overheard him, and was now looking at him hopefully. With the facial expression she had, Ven couldn't possibly say no. A little begrudgingly, he said, "Yeah."

"Perfect!" exclaimed Peach. She abruptly changed direction, going someplace away from the car now. "Let's go, then."

He hurried to catch up to her, with the others trailing behind, as they walked away from the mall. "Where is it, anyways?" he asked her, once he was beside her.

"Not far," she replied. "Just across the street, see?" As they passed the last row of cars, she pointed towards a prominent sign on the other side of the road. Ven nodded when he saw it, then looked left and right for a way to cross. He saw two, one on either side but both far away, so he turned back to Peach to ask her which direction they were going to go next, only to see her, quite casually, sashaying across the street.

"Right," he said, mentally facepalming. For some reason, he'd automatically assumed she wouldn't jaywalk; his mental image of a princess was law-abiding. None of the Smashers were really what he expected, to be honest. _Oh well_. He decided not to dwell on that, and followed the others across the street. He paused again at the door, feeling a little apprehensive, before he entered.

Ven started to look around as soon as he entered, a little surprised. He saw potted plants, landscape paintings, stiff-looking sofas, coffee tables and magazines, and straight ahead of him was a desk with a secretary standing behind it. No bottles of shampoo, nail files, or ugly facial mask mixes that his sister always used. There was only a very slight scent of something unidentifiable on the air, as well. It looked… it looked a lot like the waiting room at the dentist's. Sure, there were couches instead of chairs, the magazines and tables were different, and this secretary was a guy wearing a dress shirt instead of a fat lady wearing a horrible green dress, but otherwise, it felt pretty much the same.

He took a few steps forwards to look through the doorways to either side of the desk. Through the one on the left, he saw a hallway with a series of doors, almost like an apartment building's hallways. Through the other, he saw a row of large, intimidating chairs that looked full of gadgets, from the hair dryers at the tops, to what seemed like _sinks_ in place of footrests. A little surprised, he took a few steps back, and then looked towards the others. Peach had just finished talking to the secretary, who disappeared down the hallway for a moment, then returned.

"Right this way, please, ladies," he said in a deep voice. "Oh, and gentleman," he added as he spotted Ven, who blinked, and then smiled uncertainly, wondering if he was being made fun of. "She's ready for you."

He led them through the doorway on the right, heading towards the row of chairs. They'd barely entered the large room before another woman, brown-haired and blue-eyed, came in from a side entrance.

"Ah! Welcome, all of you!" she greeted boisterously, with a surprisingly loud voice for her size. "Thanks, Rudy. I can take it from here," she said in a voice that was only a little bit quieter. The secretary smiled and nodded his assent, before backing out of the room.

"Welcome back, Pesca!" she boomed, stepping forwards, towards Peach. "It's so nice to see you again."

"You know I always come here whenever I want to feel beautiful," said Peach, smiling warmly back at the lady.

The two of them embraced, and then the other lady leaned back, taking a good look at Peach's face before turning towards the others. "I always tell this lady, 'you don't need to come, you look absolutely gorgeous anyways!' She never listens to me, which is good for me, I suppose!" She laughed boisterously.

"If you say I'm gorgeous, Sophie, then after every time I come, I must be absolutely irresistible," Peach giggled, and the lady laughed again.

"Ah, my god, it's good to talk with you again, Pesca. You're not like the young girls I keep getting these days. My god, you wouldn't believe the sorts of messes they get themselves into," the lady lamented. Peach nodded eagerly, as the lady began to tell her story.

Ven, meanwhile, finally started to look away from the two women, instead looking curiously around the room. Other than the chairs, which actually _did_ have sinks instead of footrests, there were a couple sinks in the corners of the room, several mirrors set alongside the wall, and shelves full of bottles, towels, and tools, many of which he had never seen before. He couldn't even guess what half of them were used for. Curious, he turned back to the lady to ask what they were used for, only to see her still deep in conversation with Peach. He sidled up alongside Samus, and quietly asked her instead.

"Oh, those?" she replied. He saw her look over towards the shelves and start muttering to herself. "Nail file, cuticle nipper, hair dryer, hair straightener, hair curler..." She stopped after about ten, then turned back towards him and smiled. "Too many to name," she said. "I could probably spend an hour telling you what they do, and I don't even know what all of them are; and you probably don't want to know what some of them are."

"I can figure them out if you just tell me what they're called," he protested, wanting to know.

Samus looked at him with an eyebrow raised. "Well then, I'll just name some for you, I guess. Hmm..." She seemed to be looking for something in particular on the shelves. Then, suddenly, she let out a list of different implements in quick succession. "Foot file, razor blade, corn remover, ingrown toenail lifter..."

Ven gagged at the mental images his mind conjured up. "Bleh. Nevermind, I don't want to know anymore." Wind knocked out of his sails, he tried to think of something else to ask instead. "Why is she calling Peach Pesca?"

"Ah. Well, our names are famous, so we're supposed to use fake names outside of the Mansion. Nobody really puts any effort into it, though. Like Peach. Pesca is actually just Peach in Italian." Samus chuckled lightly in amusement. She looked like she was about to say more, but just then, the two women turned towards them.

"Well, I recognize all the others," said the lady loudly. "But who is this boy?"

"Yep," said Peach brightly. "He's the newest addition to our mansion."

The woman came up to Ven, studying him intently enough that he felt like squirming. She looked deep into his eyes, then suddenly grabbed his hand, causing him to jump. She ignored that, however, and looked at his hand, before letting go and then walking in a circle around him. When he turned with her, wondering what she was doing, she _tutted _and said, a little sharply, "Stand still." He obeyed, a little intimidated by this woman, and resigned himself to just turning his head instead.

The woman completed her circuit, then, all of a sudden, hugged him, causing Ven to jump again, a lot more awkwardly, this time. "Er… Ma'am?"

"Ma'am!" she exclaimed. "Please, honey, call me Auntie Sophie," she said to him, after letting him go. She turned to Peach. "He's so cute!" she exclaimed. "A little rough around the edges… but pretty enough to make my heart break. My god, Pesca, where do you pick up all these beautiful strays? It seems like a new one every time, and they're almost always good on the eyes."

Peach giggled and flipped her hand in an _oh, you_ motion. "I told you already, they're the children of friends of mine. The girls like to come together, but the boys never would, so the best I can do is bring them one by one."

"Aye, friends of yours. It must be true, then, that beautiful people really do attract each other," the woman sighed. "Well," she said, demeanor suddenly changing. "Enough chit-chat. Let's begin. Bags in the corner, and into the chairs, please."

Ven happily dropped his bags as instructed, then watched as the others all climbed into their chairs, when he felt a tap at his shoulder. He turned to see the woman looking at him. "You, too," she commanded.

"U-uh," he mumbled, surprised and struggling to protest. Curious as he was, he really didn't want to get into one of those chairs, but the look on her face had him wanting to go in just so she would stop looking at him. Thankfully, Zelda came to his rescue.

"Ms. Lisetti, I think that the chair might be a little much for him," she said reasonably. "It is his first time, after all."

"Please, sweetie, call me Sophie," she replied, almost absently. "Hmm… There is no point in scaring you, I suppose. You do need my help, however, on those poor nails at least. Very well, you may sit there," she said, pointing to a more normal looking swivel chair. "Don't worry, I will take care of you just as well as I do to the others."

"Are you sure about this, Sophie?" asked Peach, sitting up in her chair. "There are five of us, and only one you."

"Bah," scoffed the lady. "Do not underestimate me. For a customer like you, I could move the mountains. Simply treating five of you is child's play. Besides, I can always have Rudy help."

And true to her word, she did manage to attend to all five of them for an hour and a half. It was unexpectedly fun to watch the others chat while wearing facial masks and washing their feet, and the nail file didn't feel uncomfortable at all. In fact, Ven actually sort of enjoyed the spa visit, right up to the point where the lady, who had just trimmed a little of his hair, wondered aloud how he would look in girl's clothing.

"Eh?" he said, not sure he had heard her right. Zelda and Peach, on the other hand, had heard her perfectly fine. Having both finished, they turned towards him. The expressions on their faces were excited and delighted... So why did he feel so afraid?

"You know, I've been wondering myself," said Zelda innocently. "We could always try it out, I suppose. He's not much shorter than Sheik, and we did buy a lot of new stuff for her."

"W-wait, hold on! What are you guys gonna do?" he asked nervously, backing up a few steps.

"We just want to play dress-up with you, that's all," said Peach sweetly, slightly ruined by the evil smile on her face. She looked at him in a way that made him shiver, and something told him this was probably the best time for him to run.

"I don't want to!" he yelled, before turning and trying to run out of the room. Before he could disappear, however, Zelda reached out and snagged him on the wrist with an iron grip. He tried to tug it out, and kept on trying harder and harder when he realized how strong it was, but he couldn't budge his hand. Looking at the two of them, he was sure that it was hopeless to try to stop them.

"Samus? Can you help me?" he asked, still trying to escape.

"Hmm... Sorry, Ven," he heard her say apologetically, with a sinking feeling in his stomach. "I'm kind of curious myself, actually."

"Sheik?! Help me, please?!" he cried, trying out the other Smasher.

"Nope," said Sheik, with a deadpan expression. "You wouldn't let me escape from them, so this is just your turn. Don't worry, my clothing isn't too girly," she added, only a little reassuringly.

"Ms. Lisetti?!" The lady seemed not to hear him, instead busily washing her hands while she hummed. "A-auntie Sophie?!" he stammered, going red and feeling some of his pride shrivel up and die inside of him. She turned then, happy look on her face. "Yes, honey?"

"Can you help me?" he asked weakly.

"Oh, of course." She nodded, and then turned to Peach and Zelda. "Pesca, sweetie, don't do this right now. Every boy needs his self-respect, and this will embarass him to death if somebody walks in." He felt a flicker of hope as Peach frowned slightly, and Zelda let her grip loosen a little. He felt it die when she added, "Come, I will open a massage room. Nobody will interrupt you there." He let out a strangled groan as the two women grinned and started pulling him towards the doorway.

"Here, here are the clothes you bought me," said Sheik helpfully. Then, "_Wait_. WHEN DID YOU GET ME A MINISKIRT?"

_Gulp._

"Noooooooooo!" Ven wailed, as he renewed his efforts to escape, to no avail.

Just a few meters away, the secretary looked up from his desk. "Again?" he sighed. "I swear, one day we'll get sued for this." He considered going to help the boy, but, remembering what had happened last time he tried, he shivered, and decided to return to his game of solitaire instead.

**A/N: Hmm, different ending than I had intended. Abrupt, but I always meant for the spa scene to not be overly long. Guess I just figured out that this was a somewhat okay note to end on, as opposed to a "return to Mansion" ending that would've centered around a moment where Pit calls the girls evil, with everything else probably becoming awkward. This is (slightly) less awkward, and once I come back after a few chapters, I'll probably fix it in light of my changed perspective.**

**Anyways, there's your "incident" from last chapter, with lots of skimming on the details, zzz. I hate doing things half-assed, but sorry, a cross-dressing seems to be a request I cannot bear to write in detail. I'm not really against it as a thing… But thinking about my characters that way makes me go **_**blegh**_**.**

**Also, I sort of dislike the chapter titles I have on for #8 and 9, but I can't think of anything better/clever right now... So I'll leave it for now.**

**Anyways, the clarifications I promised: **

**There **_**is **_** a rule that weapons should be kept in lockers and not out and around the Mansion, but Master Hand's not really fussed about enforcing it, so most people only take it semi-seriously. Link does, though, because if he tried to fit all his equipment in his room, he'd have no place to sleep. Hence the lack of clawshot during the unfortunate Lucario incident, but also various other teens casually swinging lethal weapons around. Swords are sharp _ . Ah, well, they'll learn eventually.**

**Also, strictly speaking, only the humans/most humanoid looking Smashers can really roam outside of the Mansion freely. The non-humanoids that go out have to figure out a way of not being identified, for example, acting as a plushie, in the case of some Pokémon and Kirby characters. Still, this means that Smashers like the space animals can't really leave the Mansion viably, since they don't have that solutions. Pity; Wolf really wanted to see what a different world would look like… :(**

**Well, it's the middle of March, and I still have some midterms. And then April finals. I honestly can't give a date for the next chapter (which will be visitor's day, by the way!), given how inaccurate I've been with past dates… But look forward to it! If nothing else, I will have time during the summer break to write it up, so if you don't want to wait, just check back then :D**


	10. Visitor's Day pt 1

**A/N: Jokes! It didn't take that until summer for this chapter to come out after all! It's already here!**

**Well, I hadn't intended for it to be a lie. Just, I found a little inspiration again recently (as well as the realization that I still have a **_**lot**_** of room for improvement), and more importantly, I'm procrastinating as hard as I can for finals… Which is really, really bad, but this has been nagging at me. **

**Still been a little while, though. As usual, been hopping games and manga, although I put in a little effort and hit Gold in LoL, lol.**

**So, visitor's day; it's exactly what it sounds like. People who aren't Smashers, but closely linked to them, get to visit today! As you might expect, that means this will be a good couple chapters, considering just how many Smashers there are. I do hesitate in calling this an arc, though, as the previous two really shouldn't be called arcs, either. They're just stories too large to contain in one chapter. **

**Anyways, Icefire6, I promise the brawl will come next chapter, although it probably won't be anybody you expect, lol. Have fun reading!**

**EDIT: Right, I knew I forgot about something. Umm, the choice to make Sheik and Zelda into two seperate people. Well, I guess the simplest answer is that I thought it would be more interesting. Lol.**

**Going more in depth, well, the biggest part used to be because I thought Brawl needed more girls. I mean, seriously, I've already made a token effort (i.e. more than two or three lines in a fic) for almost all of the females characters (I'm not touching right now; writing kids is hard .) while I'm not even halfway through the male characters. More than that, though, Sheik's shared history with Link and Zelda lets me establish an interesting dynamic between the three, who are all roughly the same age, but have very different backgrounds and personalities. I'm not going to expound too much on that, since I might use some of it later on, but if you want a sense of perspective, I'll say this much; when they first arrived, a little less than a year had passed since the end of the game. That should leave me enough time to build up relations if I ever get to that point :3**

**Disclaimer: These characters and places do not belong to me, they belong to their respective companies. It would be pretty sweet having a mansion in the mountains, though :)**

"How long until they come?" Marth asked Ike, as he paced impatiently.

"Should be about now," Ike said, lounging in the patio chair. He glanced at his watch. "A couple minutes 'till ten." Without changing his position, he raised his voice. "Yo, Pit! See anything?"

"Nothin' yet," came Pit's voice, floating down from his perch on the oak tree. "It's not time yet, right?"

"Nope."

"I haven't felt anything like last time yet, so I don't think he's even started," commented Zelda from her seat at the table. She frowned at Marth. "Come sit down, Marth, you'll wear yourself out if you keep pacing like that."

"I'm fine. I've got so much energy, I could fight ten brawls in a row," he boasted, half-heartedly. He seemed distracted.

"Das no good," said Link thickly from his seat beside Zelda. He swallowed his mouthful of breakfast potatoes. "You won't have any time left over to make out with Shii-dikins."

A couple of the others rolled their eyes, but nobody said a word in response. With the possible exception of Link, they all seemed a little edgy, a little distracted. After all, it was Visitor's day, the day every year that Master Hand could bring in people from other worlds. A large group of the Smashers, about half of them in fact, were waiting by the patio in the Mansion's backyard. Master Hand himself had disappeared, just as he had last year, and though most of the Smashers were curious where he went and how he did it, the only thing they knew for sure was that he produced results. Around fifteen visitors had come last year. How many would this year?

Ike looked at his watch again. On a whim, he started to hum, matching his beat to the seconds ticking down on his clock. As soon as it reached zero, he muttered, "Now."

Zelda suddenly felt an explosion of magic, washing her magical senses in technicolour static. Just like last time, she felt her own magic rise up in response, and just like last time, she forced it back down under control, causing her the triforce on her hand to glow. "It's coming," she called, a little unnecessarily as many of the others had already noticed the light coming from her hand, bright even in the light of day.

At the same time, Pit's eyes widened as he watched trees ripple in the distance. "It's coming!" he shouted, as he tightly gripped the branch he was crouching on top of. All of the Smashers readied themselves, most of them opting to cover their faces with spare appendages: Yoshi with his tail, Pit with his wings, and Link with his breakfast plate. A veritable wall of wind hit them the next second, bending the trees along the walkway until they groaned under the strain, and bringing with it a small storm of leaves that pelted the windows with a sound like falling rain. The wind stopped the next moment, visibly dispersing even as it continued to ripple past the Mansion, and the Smashers all began to relax.

Peach tutted, an annoyed expression on her face, when she saw the state of the gardens, and R.O.B., with a couple leaves stuck in his body, went over to turn the fountain back on. The rest of the Smashers brushed leaves off themselves with varying degrees of nonchalance, although Luigi had to cough out a mouthful of leaves, making Peach and Mario both recoil. After they'd settled down, though, all eyes went to Pit, who had stood up, shading his eyes with his hand as he looked for signs of movement.

He saw them almost immediately. "They're here!" he shouted happily, as figures began to make their way towards the Mansion. He almost immediately jumped off his branch to run into the woods.

First was Bowser Jr., arriving by flying device with a cool "Hey, Dad." Bowser roared joyfully when he saw his son, and trundled forwards to initiate a crushing embrace. "Ouch!" he roared almost immediately, unwrapping his arms from around his son. "Have your spikes grown recently?!"

Bowser Jr. chuckled a little self-consciously. "Yeah, I have."

Bowser's face creased into a gruesome looking grin. "My son's all growing up!" he roared, loudly enough for everyone nearby to hear. His son ducked his head self-consciously, and mumbled quietly (for him, which meant everybody could hear), "C'mon, stop it, Dad, you're embarrassing me." He took his father's paw and the two quickly disappeared into the Mansion.

As the door slid closed behind the two, Mario turned to Peach. "Eh, a-Peach, I a-know I already asked, but-a…"

"He is NOT my son," Peach stated firmly, eyebrows drawing together dangerously. Her hands unconsciously curled into fists that Mario and Luigi both watched warily.

Luckily for them, Peach forgot all about them the next moment. "Hey Peach!" came a cheerful voice from behind. Recognizing the voice, Peach gasped, and spun around immediately. "Daisy!"

"And Toad," a voice floated up from the ground. The two princesses were already in the middle of a hug, however, and beyond hearing anything at that time. "Oh well," shrugged Toad. "Hey Mario, Luigi. How's the princess treating you? Still need rescuing all the time?"

Mario grinned upon seeing his old friend. "She-a is still-a slave driver, but-a she takes better care-a of herself." Luigi, on the other hand, nodded in recognition, then abruptly poked Toad in the head.

"What the hell you doing?" asked Toad. Luigi blinked and looked disappointed at the reaction. "Was wondering if you were going to spray spores," he explained. Toad looked at him with a deadpan expression on his face, then turned back to Mario. "Wanna show me around the place?" Mario nodded, and with a tug on a gossiping Peach's arm, brought the five of them inside.

The fourth visitor, blue-haired and beautiful, walked down the pathway towards them, briskly, and yet at the same time, gracefully. She was carrying a slender, six-foot long spear in one hand, and when Marth saw her, his eyes widened. "Shiida!" he shouted, before he vaulted over the patio fence, breaking immediately into a full run.

In response, she dropped her spear, and her steps quickened, until she was also running, straight towards him. "Marth!" she called joyfully, before the two hit each other in a tackle-turned into hug. "Marth," she said again, as she hugged him tight, resting her head against his shoulder. He took a deep breath, smelling a faint hint of soap on her hair, before he called her name again in response, whispering it her ear. "It's good to see you," he said, and meant it.

"It's good to see you, too, Mar," she replied. He felt her voice buzzing against his skin, not uncomfortably, and he smiled. "How're things back home? Is Malledus managing Altea alright?"

He felt her pull away at that. With an annoyed look on her face, she said, "Are you serious, Marth? It's been a year since we've seen each other, and the first thing you ask about is that dusty old guy?"

Marth smirked as he took her scolding in stride. "Well, you're here, aren't you? I can see the changes for myself," he said gently. "I can see that you've gotten a bit taller than before... I can see that new signet ring you're wearing… I can see that your hair's gotten a little longer since last year…" He touched her hair with the back of his fingers; her expression had softened completely. "I can also see that you've put on a little weight."

"MARTH!" she barked at him, enraged. She strode forwards dangerously, as if to punch him. He quickly backed off, laughing, his hands held up to protect him. "I'm joking, I'm joking!" he said. "You're not fatter at all, not even a bit!" She obviously wasn't mollified, but she did stop coming towards him. Instead, she glared at him, clearly not amused. "Besides," he said, in a lower voice, "If you did, by chance, get larger, it all happened in all the right places." He smirked at her again, and was pleased to see her go red.

"Ugh, Marth, I swear, you're such a pervert whenever I'm with you," she harrumphed, pissed, embarrassed, and somewhat pleased all at once.

"Then I guess that makes me the luckiest man on earth, since you love me anyways," he said smoothly, with a seductive smile, as he watched for her reaction.

She blinked in surprise. "Marth…" She looked away…

And then she covered her mouth with her hand as she started shaking. "If only you could see yourself right now," she laughed.

_Ah, drat._ He frowned. "Was it that bad? I guess I did go a little far," he said thoughtfully.

"No, no, I don't mind it much," she replied, still chuckling a little bit. "Hearing something like that, I almost feels like you're courting me. It's just-" she hiccupped as she tried to suppress her laughter- "you had the most grotesque expression on your face when you said that. I was actually worried for a second, it looked like you were in so much pain."

"You're joking, right?" he said incredulously. She shook her head, a broad smile still on her face. "Damn," he cursed. "I've got to work on that. After all, I technically _am_ courting you."

She smiled sweetly, yet for some strange reason Marth felt she was… annoyed?

"Technically," she repeated. He must've been imagining things, because the next moment, she slipped one of her hands into his. "Should we say hi to the others?" Marth blinked, then nodded and led her back to the patio, They passed by Ike, who was deep in conversation with two new arrivals, one an effeminate-looking man, the other with cat ears and a tail. "Hey guys," he called out to Link and Zelda, who were the only ones still sitting at the patio table. "This is Shiida. Remember her from last year?"

Zelda rose smoothly from her seat and greeted Shiida with an inclination of her head. "Of course. It's a pleasure to meet you again, Princess Shiida."

Shiida responded in kind. "The same to you, Princess Zelda. I trust you've been well?"

The boys just stared at both of them. As Zelda began to respond, Link said incredulously, "Come on, what is this? Why aren't you guys talking normally?"

Zelda's forehead creased ever so slightly as she turned her head towards him. "Please, Link. There are certain formalities to follow when greeting fellow royalty. I don't know her well enough to discard them, although I'd certainly like for that to happen in the future." Zelda smiled at Shiida, who first looked pleasantly surprised, and then smiled back.

"I feel the same. We should find some time to talk today," she said, to Marth's slight dismay. He'd wanted to spend the whole day with her, but, well, he supposed it was also nice to see her making friends with Zelda.

Then she turned towards Link. "I remember you." Link chuckled sheepishly, rubbing his neck and avoiding her eyes. "The back of my neck still tingles from time to time."

"Eh-heh, right. Sorry about that," Link said, with a sheepish smile on his face as he looked back at her. Unlike what he'd expected, she didn't look angry. Instead, she was smiling at him… a little too widely.

"It's alright, I've already forgiven you for your little prank," she said. "I'm sure we'll get along fine, as long as you don't have anything planned for today." Her eyes narrowed a little bit, like a hawk zeroing in on her prey.

"You don't, right, Link?" said Zelda. He looked at her. _Uh-oh_. She had her dangerous smile on.

"R-right…"

Nearby, Marth was smirking as he watched Link squirm in discomfort. Unfortunately for him, Shiida saw that, and her eyes narrowed a little further as she decided to take him down a notch. "Oh, it won't be a problem even if he does have something set up, because I'll just switch seats with him for dinner," she declared.

Both of the boys looked stricken, which made her feel a little bad, but Zelda clapped in delight. "Perfect! The boys can sit with each other while we'll have the chance to get to know each other." She smiled happily, as she turned to Marth. "You don't mind, do you, Marth? I mean, you have her for the whole day, and this would be the only time I could get to know your girlfriend."

"R-right. I guess it's fine," Marth said, a little begrudgingly. He hesitated for a moment, then quickly grabbed her hand. "Well, times-a-wasting. Better start spending my day with my girlfriend," he said as he started walking away, a fake smile on his face. Annoyed, Shiida was about to pull away from him, when a thought occurred to him. _Is he jealous? Of… Zelda?_ The thought made her giggle, so, instead of pulling away, she waved goodbye towards Link and Zelda as she let herself be dragged away.

* * *

"Is he… jealous?" Zelda wondered aloud.

"What?" replied Link. "No way. Jealous? Who would he be jealous of?"

Zelda frowned thoughtfully. "…For a second, it felt a lot like the way you get prissy when I spend too much time with Sheik."

"What-" Link spluttered. "I don't get prissy- Wait, why would I even be jealous of Sheik in the first place? And I'm not like him at all!"

Zelda rolled her eyes at him. "For Nayru's sake, Link, are you joking me? You guys are so similar, it scares me sometimes."

"No, we're not!" protested Link. "He's right-handed, I'm left-handed. He was born in a castle, I was born in a tiny village. Half the time, he talks like a snooty snot, while I always talk normally. Honestly, Zelda, you have more in common with him than I do."

"Wow, you know what, you're right?" replied Zelda with fake brightness, mischief colouring her smile. "Maybe I should be dating him instead of you." She watched Link closely out of the corner of her eye, and was pleased to see his spluttering reaction. She wasn't the type to keep up the charade (admittedly a little cruel) for long, though.

"Come on, Link, I'm just joking."

"Agh- Pfft, I knew that! I'm just insulted that you'd even joke about that!"

_Yep, he's fine, _Zelda thought wryly. She took a look around them; the garden was a lot emptier than it had been a couple minutes ago. "It looks like most people are here," she said to Link, who heard the serious note in her voice and stopped fuming. "Is she coming?"

Link shook his head. "I don't know. I asked Master Hand to send on a message, but I have no way of knowing if she got it."

"All we can do is wait, I guess," sighed Zelda. "I wonder if Pit found his friends. Where did he go, anyways?"

The words were barely out of her mouth when she heard the sound of fluttering wings, and a white comet shot out of the trees, quickly followed by a black comet.

"Get- back- here- you- slippery," growled the black comet with a voice that sounded a lot like Pit's, only lower.

"Hold on! Wait until we get to the brawling rooms, Pittoo!" shouted Pit, while desperately dodging the black angel's lunges.

"Don't call me that!" yelled the black angel, redoubling his efforts to catch Pit.

"Holy guacamole!" exclaimed Pit, as he frantically twisted away from an especially vigorous lunge. The maneuver left him hanging upside down, and he quickly tried to reorient himself, spotting Link and Zelda in the process. "Link! Zelda!" he had time to shout, before he was slammed into by a black comet.

The two of them watched expressionlessly as the two angels crashed into the Mansion wall and fell into a bush, both of them thinking the same thought. _Did he seriously just say that?_ A second passed, and then another, before the two angels popped right out of the bush, still entangled.

"Get off me-" grunted Pit, before shouting. "Link! Zelda! Hel-mmfh?!"

"Oh no you don't," growled Dark Pit as one of his wings accidentally smacked into Pit's mouth. Face flushed, his legs were wrapped tightly around Pit as his hands snaked into Pit's shirt, and started tickling him. "How dare you tickle attack me as soon as I arrive here? You're going to pay for that."

"Pfft- Bwahahaha," laughed Pit uncontrollably, tears coming to his eyes. "Ah- stop- HahahaHAHAHA!"

Watching the two wrestle on the ground, Zelda began to smile, and shook her head, as if to keep herself from laughing. Link, on the other hand, didn't hold himself back at all. He simply burst into laughter. "Oh- Oh my god, your face, Pit!"

A delicate, yet lively giggle followed Link's comment. It belonged to a voice that neither Link nor Zelda recognized, so they both turned towards the source: a green-haired woman who was so stunningly beautiful she looked like a goddess, standing beside them on the patio. Link was momentarily confused, but Zelda recognized her almost instantly. "Lady Palutena?" she asked, making Link look at her questioningly.

"That's me, yes," replied the green-haired goddess in a friendly tone of voice. "You're Princess Zelda, right?"

"Yes. It's an honour to finally meet you in person," said Zelda, inclining her head respectfully. "Pit successfully convinced you to come visit, I presume?"

Palutena nodded in reply, smiling. "I'm looking forward to the rest of today."

"Oh, right," said Link, having finally remembered who Palutena was. "You're the pretty- er- Pit's mistress, right?" _Wow, that came out wrong._

Palutena blinked at him, unsure of how to respond. "Err, well, I think patron goddess might be more accurate, but at least it looks like you remember who I am. That's nice."

"Haha… right, sorry about that," apologized Link. Although he was smiling at the goddess, internally he was a little more preoccupied by the sense of danger that was coming from behind him. At least Zelda wouldn't do anything while the goddess was watching, right?

Just then, Pit yelped loudly, causing Link and Palutena to instinctively glance over at them. _Shit, I just jinxed myself, didn't I? _ thought Link, right as Zelda elbowed him in the side.

"Hurrk-"

"Don't say things that'll cause misunderstandings like that, Link," hissed Zelda under her breath. She'd already withdrawn her elbow by the time Palutena looked back at them curiously, leaving Link to keep holding his smile (although by this point, it was more of a grimace). Zelda took a smooth step forward, drawing Palutena into a conversation at the same time.

"So, how do you feel over here? Is your magical power still intact?" she asked the goddess.

_Why does Zelda hit so hard?_ wondered Link, now free to massage his side. He decided not to take part in the conversation, just in case he said something stupid again by accident. Instead, he went over to the two still-wrestling angels, who'd managed to get out of the patch of bushes, at least. Pit was still caught by Dark Pit, but Dark Pit moved from a tickle tangle into some sort of sleeper hold, pinning Pit to the ground. He crouched over them, and waved. "Yo."

"Guh- Link! Help me!" said Pit, his voice muffled since his cheek was smushed against the ground.

"Hmm…" mused Link for a second. "Ya, I guess I should, huh?" Sighing, he leaned forwards and hooked his arms under Dark Pit's armpits, pulling him away.

"Hey! What are you doing?" shouted the black angel as Link hoisted him into the air. "Stop!"

"Hup! Here we go," grunted Link, as he started to swing Dark Pit away from Pit. Something black and pink flashed at the corner of his vision, before he was kicked in the face. "Guff!" he grunted, and promptly dropped the angel. Dark Pit immediately began to chase after the other angel who had taken the opportunity to escape, but not before saying, "Serves you right, creep."

Link rubbed at his cheek; that was probably going to leave a mark. _T_T. What did I do to deserve all of this?_ He wasn't good with kids (or so he thought). _Jeez. _Where was Sheik when you needed her?

* * *

Fifty meters away and one floor down, Sheik sat in a large, plushy, comfortable armchair. It was one of a set of two, currently facing each other across a coffee table. Resting comfortably in the other chair, reading a paperback novel with one hand lazily propping his head up, was Ganondorf.

Sheik had been watching him intently for the past little while. She still continued to watch him now, but she'd decided that she could get in a more comfortable position, so she leaned back and put her legs on the table. Ganondorf's eyes flickered to her feet when she did that, and he said, in gravelly tones, "Can you take your feet off the table?"

"Why do you care?" replied Sheik, feeling uncooperative.

Ganondorf's eyes flickered towards her, then back to his book again. "It's disgusting."

Sheik's eyebrows narrowed. After a brief moment, she shifted in her seat, and took exactly one foot off the table. Ganondorf's eyes flickered to the remaining foot, and then they seemed to roll before going back to the book, leaving silence once again.

Because of the expected influx of visitors to the Mansion, Master Hand had opened up several previously locked rooms to accommodate the new capacity. The room that Sheik and Ganondorf were sitting in right now was very similar to the lounge, only it was for Smashers that didn't have visitors over. It was fairly empty for the moment; Captain Falcon had just breezed through looking for his helmet, and the kids had gone outside to play. The only other occupants right now were Snake and Samus, who were playing chess, as usual.

Having reached the end of his page, Ganondorf licked one of his fingers before using it to flip to the next page. Sheik, watching him, shuddered, a little grossed out. The warlock noticed, eyes flickering towards Sheik.

"If it bothers you, you may leave, you know," he said as he went back to reading his book.

Sheik's eyes narrowed once again as she studied Ganondorf's face. Did he know what she was doing? Was he trying to find an excuse to throw her off? Well, it didn't matter. She wasn't moving from this spot unless Ganondorf moved first.

"What are you doing, anyways?" he asked in a bored tone.

"…I've got my eye on you," she replied shortly. Did he really not know?

"And?"

"I'm making sure you're not getting up to mischief!" she declared. "I'm not letting you ruin today for the others."

Ganondorf gave her an incredulous look, putting his book down. "And so… You're just going to watch me? All day?"

"Yeah. It's been working like a charm, so far."

"…" It seemed to Sheik that Ganondorf almost facepalmed, but instead, he simply stood up. She did the same, and followed him out the room.

Ganondorf looked over his shoulder at her as they both walked down the hall. "Are you seriously following me to the bathroom?" he asked, incredulously.

"Yep. Who knows? You might set a bomb in there."

"Dear lord…" sighed Ganondorf, apparently exasperated. "Why aren't you with the other brats? Don't you have somebody to meet, as well?"

Sheik hesitated before answering. "Everybody I would care to see right now already lives here. That's why I won't let you ruin their days."

"How self-sacrificing of you," commented Ganondorf sarcastically.

"I know, right?" replied Sheik in a similar tone.

"Now, can you please get out of the bathroom?" Ganondorf asked dryly. Sheik blinked, and looked down to see porcelain tiling.

"Alright… but no funny business."

* * *

"I'll see you in a bit, Link," Pit called out as he went into the Mansion with Palutena and Dark Pit following him. "Just let me beat Pittoo first- ouch!"

"Yeah, alright!" Link waved back, although Pit, who'd started arguing with Dark Pit again, probably didn't see it. He turned back to the forest, frowning, before he took a seat again.

Most of the Smashers had already gone inside with their visitors; there were only seven of them left waiting. Link and Zelda were both still waiting, although Zelda seemed to have started worrying, at this point.

"She hasn't come yet," fretted Zelda. "Maybe, she's not…?" She let the thought trail off.

"Let's wait a little longer," said Link, although he was also a little worried by this point. "Toonie isn't gone yet either."

The number of Smashers waiting slowly dwindled lower and lower as the visitors came slower and slower. There were only four Smashers left when Link heard Toon Link shout joyfully, "Tetra!"

Both he and Zelda looked up hopefully when they heard that. _If Tetra's come, then that means…_ Link stood up and went to the patio fence immediately, looking towards the forest, and so he caught sight of her.

She was clothed in a black dress that only barely failed to hide her gender. She had orange hair the colour of autumn leaves, and skin the colour of a smoky grey. She could not be called beautiful, but neither could she be called plain; she had a husky foreignness to her that still had the power to kindle desire. She also wore a smile, as she walked up the stone path, and on seeing her, a weight in Link's chest that he didn't even know was there seemed to lift, at the same time that his throat went dry.

"Midna," he half-rasped, half-whispered.

**A/N: Once again, only a semi-decent place to end, but I need to study for exams quite badly T_T. **

**This is definitely gearing up to be long story, since, well, I haven't even gotten through the morning yet! Lol. I'm still not completely sure how to go about organizing all my thoughts, but at least all the major players are present now. Now, what should I put my characters through now? Kekekeke…**

**Poor Link's become sort of a butt-monkey right now. Not in the original character design… but at least I have pretty much everybody fleshed out properly in my head, now! Hooray! Now I just have to put it on paper! (Somehow, the girls were originally more distinct than the guys… Does that say something about me? XD)**

**Oh, right. Final note, I recently started a new fic for the 2011 anime Guilty Crown, so if you've watched it, feel free to check it out (and if you haven't watched it… feel free to _watch the anime first_, at your own risk).**


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